Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, tweeted that 44 countries shall come and visit El Salvador to discuss Bitcoin, among other things.
"Tomorrow, 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities (44 countries) will meet in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the #Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country," wrote Bukele in a tweet.
His guests are delegates from various central banks and authorities who are primarily from developing countries in Africa and South Asia.
As the host of an annual meeting of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), El Salvador President Nayib Bukele wants to promote the use and adoption of Bitcoin to his guests.
Through the event, Bukele covers topics such as financial inclusion and the digital economy, as well as the benefits El Salvador has obtained from becoming the first country in Africa and second in the world to make Bitcoin an official currency alongside its local currency.
Tomorrow, 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities (44 countries) will meet in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the #Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
As the first nation to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender since September 2021, El Salvador is the holder of over 2,000 Bitcoins.
With the digital coin in hand, El Salvador uses it to combat hyperinflation and reduce its dependency on the U.S. currency.
With the country's experience in using the digital coin as a way of commerce, Bukele wants his guests to discuss financial inclusion, the digital economy, banking the unbanked, as well as things regarding El Salvador’s Bitcoin rollout and benefits.
According to Bukele, among the countries attending the event include Paraguay, Haiti, Honduras, Costa Rica and Ecuador in Latin America; Angola, Ghana, Namibia and Uganda in Africa; and Bangladesh, Palestine and Pakistan in Asia.
He also announced that the central banks of Egypt and Nigeria, Africa’s two largest economies, are the attendance.
In follow up tweets, the President listed a long list of his guests:
Banco Central de São Tomé e Príncipe
Banco Central del Paraguay
Banco Nacional de Angola
Bank of Ghana
Bank of Namibia
Bank of Uganda
Banque Centrale de la République de Guinée
Banque Centrale de Madagascar
Banque de la République d'Haiti
Banque de la République du Burundi— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
Central Bank of Eswatini
Ministry of Finance of Eswatini
Central Bank of Jordan
Central Bank of The Gambia
Comisión Nacional de Bancos y Seguros de Honduras
Direction Générale du Trésor, Ministère des Finances et du Budget, Madagascar
Maldives Monetary Authority— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
National Bank of Rwanda
Nepal Rastra Bank
Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) Kenya
State Bank of Pakistan
Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras de Costa Rica
Superintendencia de la Economía Popular y Solidaria de Ecuador
Banco Central de El Salvador— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
Central Bank of Egypt
Central Bank of Jordan
Central Bank of Nigeria
Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et du Plan du Sénégal
Superintendencia de Bancos de la República Dominicana
Banque Centrale de Mauritanie
Banque Centrale du Congo
Central Bank of Armenia
Bangladesh Bank— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
Banco de Moçambique
Bank Al-Maghrib (Morocco)
Bank of Sierra Leone
Bank of Zambia
Central Bank of Lesotho
Central Bank of Liberia
Central Bank of Sudan
Financial Regulatory Commission of Mongolia
Ministry of Finance, Zambia
Palestine Monetary Authority
Reserve Bank of Malawi— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
This announcement came shortly after El Salvador bought 500 Bitcoins worth $15.5 million at the time.
The country has shown great interest in the cryptocurrency, even going as far as planning to create a Bitcoin City.
It's worth noting that AFI has postponed its in-person meetings following two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And this annual meeting in 2022 is held for its Digital Financial Services Working Group and the Small and Medium Enterprise Finance Working Group in El Salvador, according to the AFI.
"El Salvador, which joined the AFI network in 2012, has made significant progress in harnessing digital financial services to advance financial inclusion for individuals and small businesses," Eliki Boletawa, AFI’s policy programs and implementation director, said in a statement.
Planting seeds in 44 countries.
3 days to go…#Bitcoin is good for the world pic.twitter.com/eOwhJZQ4RX— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022
2 more days to go…#Bitcoin is good for developing countries (and for humanity). pic.twitter.com/GVEXIICldC
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 18, 2022
Bukele attempts to promote Bitcoin among the developing countries amid a dispute with the International Monetary Fund, which in January recommended that the Central American country to discontinue its use of Bitcoin as a legal tender because of the financial risks and liabilities it created.
In March, El Salvador Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said the country postponed its planned $1 billion Bitcoin bond offering because of unfavorable market conditions.
Read: El Salvador Invests $4 Million Worth Of Its Bitcoin To Build A Pet Hospital