Stablecoins and Tokenised Deposits in Four African Jurisdictions: Regulatory Readiness, Holder Protection and Cross-Border Settlement (International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT))

Summary

• South Africa recorded the highest Regulatory Readiness Index score of 75.0% among the four African jurisdictions evaluated.p.10
• Kenya achieved a Regulatory Readiness Index score of 66.7%, allocating supervisory duties across banking and capital market authorities.p.10
• Ghana scored 54.2% on the Regulatory Readiness Index, placing it in the transitional readiness category.p.10

Key insights

1. General legal recognition of virtual assets does not independently establish comprehensive reserve, redemption, custody, or insolvency safeguards.p.1
2. Improved access to arbitrage arrangements reduced the absolute size of stablecoin peg deviations by approximately half.p.5
3. Provider authorization must be evaluated separately from the protection of underlying financial claims held by users.p.10
4. Kenya's framework divides authority by allocating stablecoin issuance to the Central Bank of Kenya and trading platforms to the Capital Markets Authority.p.11
5. South Africa's financial product licensing regime remains asset-neutral and does not offer stablecoin-specific rules for reserve quality or par redemption.p.11
6. Responsible cross-border settlement requires legally reliable transaction arrangements, verifiable backing, and enforceable conversion rights.p.4