4 entries.
At its 17 to 19 June plenary in Paris, the last under the Mexican presidency, the FATF removed Algeria and Namibia from the list of Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring and added Iraq and Bosnia and Herzegovina, leaving 22 jurisdictions on the grey list. Kenya was not among the exits: it remains under increased monitoring while it completes its action plan, which matters directly for the VASP licensing regime it is finalising, since Travel Rule implementation under the draft VASP Regulations (cpm-2026-0002) is part of Kenya's case for delisting. With South Africa out in May (cpm-2026-0007) and now Algeria and Namibia following, African delistings are becoming a pattern rather than an exception. Six African jurisdictions remain on the list.
South Africa was removed from the FATF list of Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring after a multi-year action plan coordinated across Treasury, SARB and the FSCA. For crypto this is the continent's most consequential AML development of the half-year. Grey-list status was a standing objection institutional allocators raised against SA-regulated platforms, and its removal converts the country's CASP licensing regime from a compliance burden into a sales asset. Watch the knock-ons: Kenya's grey-list review was due at the June 2026 plenary, and Nigeria's action plan is in progress. Delisting is now the template other African jurisdictions will be measured against.
Ripple's April 2026 analysis groups eight African jurisdictions by regulatory maturity: South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya leading; Ghana, Botswana and Ethiopia flagged as the next wave with compliance rollout through 2026; Mauritius grouped with the leaders. The framing, adoption metrics giving way to infrastructure reliability and operational trust, is corporate research with an agenda. Ripple is positioning itself as a partner to African regulators, which is precisely why the report is useful: it shows where a major industry player expects licensing regimes to be bankable. Notable omission: Senegal and the UEMOA bloc, whose BCEAO questionnaire suggests the map is already out of date.
The National Treasury circulated the Draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations, 2026 on 17 March. It is the first implementing instrument under the VASP Act 2025, published with a Regulatory Impact Statement and a multi-agency task force behind it. The draft sets licensing and authorisation processes for all VASP categories, including exchanges, custodial wallets and payment processors, and writes FATF Recommendation 15 and Travel Rule requirements into the Kenyan framework. Strong Travel Rule implementation also supports Kenya's argument for exiting FATF increased monitoring. The regulations, not the Act, decide what compliance actually costs; capital requirements and licensing categories land here. Re-verified 6 July 2026: comments closed 10 April and the final regulations had not been gazetted as of this date.
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