By David King BOISON (Dr) & Raphael Nyarkotey OBU(Prof)
Over the past decade, cryptocurrencies have transformed from niche curiosities into cornerstone assets of the global financial system.
In April 2025, total cryptocurrency market capitalization had surged to approximately US$2.86 trillion, underscoring the asset class’s systemic importance (CoinGecko, 2025).
Bitcoin alone represented roughly US$1.69 trillion of this figure (CoinMarketCap, 2025), while an ever‑expanding universe of over 37 million tokenized instruments illustrates the pace of innovation (Tangem Blog, 2025).
This maturation is perhaps most visible in the US$50 billion amassed by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) since its January 2024 launch, a clear signal that traditional institutions now view digital assets as integral, regulated components of diversified portfolios (BlackRock, 2025).
Yet, while global markets embrace digital‑asset integration, Sub‑Saharan Africa continues to grapple with profound financial exclusion: roughly 350 million adults—about 57percent of the region’s population—remain unbanked, unable to access even basic banking services (Cambridge Centre for Digital Innovation, 2023).
At the same time, remittance inflows to the region topped US$54 billion in 2023, a lifeline for many households but one burdened by high fees and slow settlement times under traditional correspondent‑bank models (World Bank, 2024).
Digital currencies, properly regulated, offer a compelling solution: they can slash remittance costs, broaden financial inclusion, and ignite local fintech ecosystems.
The question is not whether Africa should engage with crypto, but how—and under what legal framework—to harness its transformative potential safely and equitably.
This article examines Nigeria’s Investments and Securities Act 2024 (ISA 2024) as a pioneering blueprint for continental crypto regulation.
It will unpack how ISA 2024 brings cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities within the remit of the Nigerian SEC, compare legislative approaches across South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Mauritius, and quantify the economic dividends of regulated digital‑asset markets in driving inclusion, innovation, and resilience.
Finally, it will identify the legal and operational challenges—ranging from AML/CFT gaps to capacity constraints—and propose harmonized, pan‑African strategies to ensure digital currencies serve as engines of sustainable growth across the continent.
Nigeria’s ISA 2024 – A bold legislative framework
- Recognizing digital assets as securities – What does it mean when a national legislature formally classifies digital tokens as securities? On April 7, 2025, President Bola Tinubu ratified the Investments and Securities Act 2024 (ISA 2024), repealing the 2007 Act and, for the first time, explicitly expanding “securities” to include digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, tokenized investment contracts, and warehouse receipts (Kaaru, 2025; Adeyemo, 2025).
Under these provisions, virtual‑asset service providers—ranging from exchanges to custodians—must now operate under the same legal umbrella as traditional brokers and fund managers.
In positioning cryptocurrencies alongside debentures, stocks, and bonds, Nigeria has sent a powerful signal that digital assets are no longer peripheral but central to its capital‑market architecture.
- Expanded powers and mandate of SEC Nigeria – How will enforcement evolve under this new regime? The ISA 2024 confers sweeping powers on the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Beyond licensing digital‑asset exchanges, the SEC may now conduct on‑site inspections, compel the production of subscriber data from internet and telecom providers, and levy fines of up to 5 million naira or imprisonment for operators of unregistered schemes (Mondaq, 2025; Reuters, 2024).
Moreover, the Act enhances the SEC’s toolkit for combating Ponzi and pyramid schemes—a persistent scourge in unregulated crypto markets—by prescribing penalties of up to ten years’ imprisonment for convicted offenders (Chambers, 2025).
These measures collectively bolster Nigeria’s capacity to police market abuses and fortify investor confidence.
- Legal recognition of digital exchanges and custodians – What legal status do digital‑asset platforms now hold? In integrating virtual‑asset exchanges within Nigeria’s securities‑exchange framework, ISA 2024 mandates that all trading platforms register either as composite exchanges—permitting multi‑asset listings—or as specialized venues focusing solely on digital assets (Mondaq, 2025). Custodial entities, meanwhile, must comply with capital and governance requirements akin to those imposed on traditional custodians. This parity not only establishes a level playing field between “brick‑and‑mortar” and digital‑only service providers but also ensures that every token traded in Nigeria benefits from the SEC’s oversight, market‑integrity rules, and dispute‑resolution mechanisms through an empowered Investments and Securities Tribunal.
- Investor protection and market integrity – How does ISA 2024 safeguard the end user? The Act introduces rigorous disclosure standards for digital‑asset issuers, demanding transparent white papers, audited smart‑contract code, and periodic financial reports (Aluko‑Oyebode, 2025). It further enshrines segregation of client assets, requiring platforms to hold user funds in trust accounts separate from corporate treasuries—a critical deterrent against corporate misappropriation.
To guard against systemic shocks, the SEC can now impose circuit breakers and liquidity‑stress tests on exchanges, ensuring orderly markets during periods of extreme volatility.
Collectively, these provisions aim not only to shield the uninformed retail investor but also to signal to sophisticated, global institutional players that Nigeria’s digital‑asset markets meet international best‑practice benchmarks.
In codifying digital assets as securities and equipping the SEC with modern enforcement and supervisory tools, ISA 2024 transforms Nigeria’s capital markets into a credible hub for blockchain innovation.
These reforms lay the groundwork for deeper fintech integration, enhanced investor protections, and the sustainable growth of Africa’s largest economy—offering a replicable template for the continent.
Comparative landscape – Digital‑currency legislation in Africa
- South Africa’s FAIS regime and the FSCA’s licensing drive – South Africa has classified crypto assets as “financial products” under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act of 2002, thereby requiring all Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs) to obtain a Financial Service Provider licence from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). Since the licensing process commenced on 1 June 2023, the FSCA had received 420 applications by December 2024, approving 248 and declining nine, with the remainder either withdrawn or under review (Financial Sector Conduct Authority [FSCA], 2024). This robust licensing exercise—coupled with directives under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act to implement the FATF “Travel Rule” by April 2025—has positioned South Africa as an early mover on the continent, creating a clear, rules‑based framework for exchanges, custodians, and other virtual‑asset intermediaries.
- Kenya’s emerging VASP Bill – For years, Kenya’s approach to cryptocurrencies was limited to cautionary advisories from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), alongside a 3percent digital‑asset tax introduced in the Finance Act of 2023 (Chambers, 2024). In early 2025, Parliament advanced the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill, a landmark proposal that would require licensed platforms to establish physical branches in Kenya, integrate AML/CFT safeguards, and secure regulatory approval before conducting ICOs (CryptoDaily, 2025).
The Bill also vests joint oversight in the CBK and CMA and prescribes penalties—up to five years’ imprisonment and fines of KSh 10 million—for unlicensed activity (CryptoDaily, 2025). While the VASP Bill has not yet been enacted, its passage through key committees signals Kenya’s imminent shift from informal tolerance to structured regulation.
- Ghana’s dual track: e‑Cedi CBDC vs. unregulated crypto markets – In contrast to its nascent crypto‑asset legislation, Ghana has pursued a two‑pronged strategy: piloting its own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the e‑Cedi, while allowing private crypto trading to remain largely unregulated. Between July and October 2022, the Bank of Ghana successfully field‑tested the e‑Cedi in a sandbox with 2,750 participants, logging GH¢473 million in over 96,000 transactions (Regtech Africa, 2024).
Although the pilot demonstrated feasibility—especially offline use cases for rural inclusion—the launch was delayed by macroeconomic instability, with a retail rollout now anticipated by the end of 2025 pending enabling legislation (Human Rights Foundation, 2025). Meanwhile, private crypto exchanges continue to operate without formal licensing, exposing retail investors to potential fraud and market abuse.
- Mauritius’s VAITOS Act: Pioneering virtual‑asset supervision – Mauritius enacted the Virtual Asset and Initial Token Offering Services Act (VAITOS) in December 2021, coming into force on 7 February 2022. The VAITOS Act empowers the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to license and supervise Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) and issuers of initial token offerings, imposing fit‑and‑proper requirements, ongoing reporting obligations, and winding‑up procedures in line with FATF recommendations (Government of Mauritius, 2021; Financial Services Commission, 2022). This comprehensive framework extends existing securities‑law oversight to digital tokens, positioning Mauritius as a jurisdiction of choice for tokenized‑asset issuers seeking regulatory certainty.
- Namibia’s two‑tier licensing under the Virtual Asset Act – Namibia has recently joined the regulatory vanguard through its Virtual Asset Act, 2023. In January 2025, the Bank of Namibia issued six‑month provisional authorizations to two local VASPs, Mindex Virtual Asset Exchange and Landifa Bitcoin Trade CC, under a two‑step licensing model that restricts business activity until full compliance (Bank of Namibia, 2025). The Act mandates that provisional licensees meet defined pre‑authorization conditions—including governance, infrastructure, and AML/CFT protocols—before commencement of public operations. This calibrated approach reflects Namibia’s cautious embrace of crypto, seeking to balance innovation with consumer protection in line with regional AML standards.
Economic rationale for regulating crypto in Africa
- Bridging the financial‑inclusion divide – How can digital currencies help Africa’s hundreds of millions of unbanked gain access to basic financial services? Sub‑Saharan Africa already leads the world in mobile‑finance adoption: by the end of 2023 there were 835 million registered mobile‑money accounts, representing nearly half of all global accounts, and 234 million of those were active on a 30‑day basis (GSMA, 2024). These platforms processed roughly US$912 billion in transactions—more than two‑thirds of global mobile‑money value—via an agent network of 3 million active agents, embedding digital finance deep into local economies (GSMA, 2024).
Yet roughly 350 million adults—about 57percent of Sub‑Saharan Africa’s population—remain unbanked (Cambridge Centre for Digital Innovation, 2023).
In bringing cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets under formal regulatory frameworks, governments can leverage existing mobile‑money rails to extend digital wallets, lowering onboarding costs and building trust through licensed service providers.
- Slashing remittance costs and frictions – Why does Africa need crypto regulation to improve remittance flows? In 2023, Africa received US$54 billion in remittances, a critical lifeline for many households, yet the average cost of sending US$200 to Sub‑Saharan Africa was a prohibitive 9percent, almost twice the global average of 6.6percent (World Bank, 2024; World Bank, 2023). These high fees and slow settlement times force many senders and recipients into informal, untraceable channels. Regulated stablecoin corridors and tokenized‑remittance frameworks can reduce transfer costs to under 2percent, settling across blockchain rails in minutes rather than days. When anchored by robust AML/CFT safeguards and consumer‑protection rules, digital‑asset remittances can dramatically expand low‑cost, transparent financial flows across borders.
- Catalyzing fintech innovation and jobs – Can clear regulation unlock venture capital and employment opportunities? Despite a “funding winter,” African tech startups still raised USUS$1.12 billion in 2024, with fintech continuing to attract the lion’s share of investment (Disrupt Africa, 2025). Moreover, Nigeria alone received US$59 billion in cryptocurrency value between July 2023 and June 2024, ranking second globally for crypto adoption (Chainalysis, 2024).
As exchanges, custodians, and token‑issuers secure formal licences, they will need compliance officers, risk‑management specialists, software engineers, and customer‑support teams—mirroring mobile‑money agent networks that employed over 8 million Africans in 2023 (GSMA, 2024).
This ecosystem not only spawns high‑skilled jobs but also drives ancillary services—legal, accounting, cybersecurity—empowering whole value chains around regulated digital‑asset markets.
- Enhancing macroeconomic resilience – Might regulated digital‑asset markets contribute to national financial stability? In economies beset by volatile inflation—Ghana’s rate peaked at 8percent in mid‑2022—crypto has emerged as a popular store of value and hedge for everyday savers (Chainalysis, 2023). In folding cryptocurrencies into formal capital‑market infrastructures, policymakers can foster portfolio diversification and reduce reliance on unstable local currencies. Licensed digital‑asset platforms can also facilitate cross‑listing of tokenized government bonds or green‑finance instruments, broadening investor bases and strengthening fiscal funding channels.
In sum, the economic case for regulated crypto in Africa is clear: it can accelerate financial inclusion by leveraging existing digital‑wallet networks, slash remittance costs through blockchain rails, catalyze startup funding and job creation, and bolster macroeconomic resilience via diversified financial instruments.
The next sections will illustrate how Nigeria’s ISA 2024 lays the groundwork for these benefits—and how other African nations can follow suit under a harmonized, pan‑continental framework.
>>>Dr Boison is a Maritime & Port Expert | AI Consultant | Senior Research Fellow CIMAG| CEO Knowledge Web Center. He can be reached via [email protected]
>>>Prof. Obu is a Professor of Naturopathy | Barrister & Solicitor (The Gambia Bar)| Chartered Health Economist| President, Nyarkotey College of Holistic Medicine & Technology. He can be reached via [email protected]
