Topic: stablecoins
6 entries.
June 2026
The CBN unveiled its Payments System Vision 2028 in Abuja on 1 June, the roadmap promised when the Payments Service Providers Committee launched in April (cpm-2026-0019). The headline target is 95% financial inclusion by 2028, but the regulatory story is stablecoins: the document references them dozens of times and proposes an enabling framework recognising fiat-collateralised stablecoins as a distinct category of digital monetary instrument, with CBN licensing, full high-quality reserve backing, daily attestations, monthly audits and real-time supervisory visibility. The eNaira is repositioned as payment infrastructure rather than a consumer product, and the vision contemplates regulated stablecoins in live cross-border corridors for trade and remittances. Five years after ordering banks away from crypto, Nigeria's central bank is designing stablecoins into its payments architecture. The framework's legal form is the thing to watch next.
May 2026
Law nº 023/2026 of 25/05/2026 regulating virtual asset business was published in Rwanda's Official Gazette n° Special of 28/05/2026 and, under article 40, came into force that day with no transitional period. The Capital Market Authority is the Regulatory Authority, working with the National Bank of Rwanda on stability and payments (art. 8). Six criminal offences commenced with it, from FRW 15,000,000 for unlicensed marketing to FRW 150,000,000 for issuing virtual assets without approval, with personal liability for directors who mislead or obstruct the CMA (art. 37). Article 15(1) bars natural persons from virtual asset business outright. Licensing, capital thresholds, liquidity ratios and the whole administrative sanctions regime (art. 32) are deferred to regulations that had not been issued as of 1 September 2026, checked against the gazette index to 25 August and the CMA's own regulations, guidelines and directives pages. Firms are exposed under article 34 and cannot apply. Article 27(2)(b) ties every provider's personal data measures to Law 058/2021, already in force under the NCSA.
Ten weeks after quietly surveying fintechs on crypto (cpm-2026-0011), the BCEAO convened an international conference in Dakar on 8 May on crypto-assets and digital innovations and their implications for monetary and financial stability. The agenda was regulatory, not promotional: stablecoin implications for monetary policy, prudential supervision and regional cooperation, cybersecurity and financial integrity. The Governor's stated objective was a proportionate regulatory framework coordinated at the regional level. Read the trajectory: the central bank of the eight-state UEMOA zone has moved from silence to intelligence-gathering to public convening inside six months, the standard runway a central bank builds before it regulates. Whatever framework emerges will bind Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo simultaneously. Source in French; translation ours.
April 2026
CBK posted senior and managerial roles for virtual asset licensing and compliance while the VASP regulations were still in consultation. Read the sequencing: the regulator is building supervisory capacity ahead of the final rules, which points to licensing applications opening soon after gazettement, plausibly in Q3 2026. The hiring also confirms the division of labour in practice. CBK takes payment-side VASPs and stablecoin issuers; CMA takes exchanges, brokers and tokenization platforms. Regulators who staff up intend to enforce. Re-verified 6 July 2026: the final regulations remained ungazetted and licensing had not opened.
The CBN inaugurated a joint Payments Service Providers Committee bringing the central bank, commercial banks, mobile money operators and fintechs to one table, after Nigeria's payment system crossed the quadrillion-naira mark with 11.2 billion transactions in 2024. A new Payments System Vision was promised within a month of launch. For digital assets the interesting part is the grey zone the committee will inevitably touch: cross-border payments, stablecoin-adjacent services and BNPL currently sit between licensing categories, and a coordination body is where those lines get redrawn. Re-verified 6 July 2026: the promised vision arrived on 1 June as the Payments System Vision 2028, with stablecoins written into it (cpm-2026-0024).
November 2025
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 received presidential assent on 15 October 2025 and came into force on 4 November 2025, making it the first standalone virtual asset statute enacted in Africa. Supervision is split: CBK takes digital asset issuance and custodial services, while CMA takes exchanges, brokers and trading platforms. An earlier draft's standalone regulator, VARA, was dropped. The 3% digital asset tax was repealed in favour of excise duty on VASP service fees, a materially better outcome for holders and P2P users. Section 47 gives existing VASPs one year from commencement to comply. That clock runs out on 4 November 2026, and every VASP touching the Kenyan market needs a licensing position before then.
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