Bukele talks about bitcoin with central banks and financial institutions from 44 countries

President Nayib Bukele informed today that El Salvador is hosting a meeting in which representatives of financial institutions from 44 countries will be present. With them, he will talk about bitcoin (BTC) adoption, among other financial topics.

Eight months after having declared bitcoin as legal tender, Bukele will show the economic impact that the pioneering cryptocurrency has produced in the nation who directs.

To the appointment central bank and government officials from developing countries will attend, including Nigeria, Egypt, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Paraguay, Angola, Guinea and Madagascar, according to the list of participants that Bukele post on Twitter.

The 44 countries come from the African, Asian and South American continents. There are no representatives from Europe, North America, nor Oceania. It is because the event was organized by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), agency that promotes the use of financial services for the inclusion of the unbanked population.

The event will be held until May 19 and “aligns with the National Financial Inclusion Policy recently launched by El Salvador, with digitalization and access to financing for small businesses as a priority,” as it inform the Central Bank of the Central American country.

Bukele and its bitcoin-based programs for El Salvador

At the beginning of the year, the government of El Salvador launched a program, based on bitcoin, to provide financing to small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.

As Crypto News reported at the time, micro and small businesses that have funds in bitcoin, can access loans to cover their liquidity needs or promote new projects that require investment.

For this, the National Commission of Micro and Small Business (Conamype) of El Salvador joined with the decentralized finance protocol (DeFi), Acumen, to make loans in bitcoin at a low interest rate with the idea of favoring the self-employed.

The scope of the Conamype program will surely be one of the topics that will be discussed at the conference with visitors from 44 countries. This, taking into account that Bukele will talk about financial inclusion, the digital economy and the benefits that El Salvador has had after adopting bitcoin as legal tender, as he pointed out on Twitter.

Although Bukele will focus on bitcoin-based financial inclusion, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (nber), published last month, notes that bitcoin has had little impact in El Salvador, as more than 70% of the population is still unbanked. This is because most prefer to pay for their services and purchases with cash.

In addition, that is not the only difficulty that the Bukele government has faced in the last eight months, during which time it has received warnings about the use of bitcoin by the IMF and has had to delay the issuance of the so-called volcano bonds of El Salvador.