Crypto Policy Monitor

Instrument: licensing

2 entries.

April 2026
Ghana · licensing · in force · 8 Apr 2026

Ghana's VASP sandbox goes live: Africoin admitted as first participant

SEC Ghana admitted Africoin, a Kigali-headquartered, Ethereum-based platform tokenizing cocoa, coffee, gold, silver and verified carbon credits, to its Virtual Asset Sandbox under Act 1154. It is the first documented sandbox participant, which matters more than the participant itself: Ghana's regulatory pathway is now operational rather than theoretical, and its 12-month sandbox term with a mid-term review at six months is a faster route to licensing than anything currently available in Kenya or Nigeria. Africoin says it is pursuing parallel approvals in several African countries, an early sighting of the multi-jurisdiction tokenization play the continent's new VASP laws will now have to accommodate.

Nigeria · licensing · in force · 8 Apr 2026

Flutterwave gets a banking licence as CBN closes the payments-only middle ground

Flutterwave secured a national microfinance banking licence, following Paystack's January acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank and earlier upgrades for OPay and Moniepoint. The pattern is a policy: CBN is forcing fintechs that hold customer funds to choose between pure payment processing and full banking licensing. The ₦250m Paystack fine over Zap wallet operations showed the regulator comparing licensed activity against actual activity. Any platform whose custody practices have outgrown its licence category, in Nigeria or elsewhere in the region, should read this as its warning.