Venezuelan President Pushes for Petro Crypto Adoption with Latest Govt. Fund Allocations

In an effort to dig out the country from the deep hole of hyperinflation, sovereign debt and sanctions from other economies, President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s leader, is set to implement an aggressive strategy focused on its national cryptocurrency – Petro.

Government projects to be funded using Petro

In a state address on Tuesday night, Maduro urged the country to embrace the use of its Petro cryptocurrency urging the populous to switch from the growing dependence on US Dollars. Maduro will set up government developmental funds – denominated in petro and euros – in a bid to spark economic growth in the country.

In the address, Maduro promised each state and protectorate a total of 1 million petros twice a month to spark the use of the national crypto in the government. The protectorate and state governments will have the free will to spend the amount in development projects in their areas. To explain the magnitude of the announcement he said,

“In concrete terms, this means, my compatriots, which we are assigning between 1,354,000 euros and 3,249,600 euros to governors and protectorates.”

While most of the Petro stash is expected to be distributed to the state governments, the national government projects will also receive part of the funds.

The telecommunications department will receive 4 million petros; 1 million petros to spark agricultural development, 600,000+ petros for inputs and machinery and a further 9 million petros for road construction. The country also holds a joint fund with China to which $2 million USD worth of petro will be stashed.

Venezuela embraces crypto adoption

In August, the head of digital asset activities within the Venezuelan government urged the citizens to embrace the use of Petro for their everyday needs. Joselit Ramírez, asked Venezuelans to use the government sponsored, Patna Remesa platform to make global remittances and international payments using the cryptocurrency.

Furthermore, government backed exchange, CriptoLAGO, announced the launch of crypto debit cards in the country offering users a gateway to easily purchase and use Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash and Petro in daily activities.