Late Sunday night, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced on Twitter that 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities from 44 countries are to meet on Monday, May 16, to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, El Salvador’s Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in the country.
In follow up tweets, the president announced that the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe, Central Bank of Paraguay, National Bank of Angola, Bank of Ghana, Bank of Namibia, Bank of Uganda, Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea, Central Bank of Madagascar, Bank of the Republic of Haiti, and the Bank of the Republic of Burundi, Central Bank of Eswatini and its Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Jordan, Central Bank of The Gambia, National Committee of Banks and Seguros of Honduras, Directorate General of Treasury, Ministry of Finance and Budget, Madagascar, and the Maldives Monetary Authority are among those that will be attending.
Bukele added that the National Bank of Rwanda, Nepal Rastra Bank, Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA), Kenya, State Bank of Pakistan, General Superintendency of Financial Entities of Costa Rica, Superintendence of the Popular and Solidarity Economy of Ecuador, and the Central Bank of El Salvador will also be in attendance.
On Friday, May 13, the Twitter account for Bitcoin Beach announced that “Central bankers from Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Burundi, Congo, Costa Rica, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, India, Namibia, Senegal, Sundan, Uganda, Zambia and 25 other developing countries are getting on planes today to fly to El Salvador.”
Not long after President Bukele’s official announcement, Bitcoin Beach tweeted out a map of the world that seemingly has countries who have either adopted Bitcoin already and or are attending Monday's meeting filled in with color, saying “Probably nothing.”
Image via Bitcoin Beach
It took 12 years for the first country to adopt Bitcoin, around 8 months for the second, and if Panama’s president signs their recent Bitcoin bill into law, then they will be the third only about a month after the second. Now, countries from all over the world are meeting in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion and how adopting Bitcoin can benefit their countries.
Gradually, then suddenly.