Africa’s crypto policy scene is seeing increased activities, with the latest development coming out of Uganda. The country’s parliament is working on a bill to regulate digital assets and make legal provisions for tokenization in an amendment to the Capital Markets Authority Bill.
That’s according to a letter from the parliament’s clerk to Uganda’s minister of finance, planning and economic development.
Details
- The bill, being prepared for its first reading, is sponsored by a Member of Parliament Nathan Igeme Nabeta.
- In the letter, the clerk of the parliament, Adolf Kasaija, asked that Nabeta be issued a certificate of financial implication. This would enable him to present the bill to the parliament.
Key quote
- Kasaija wrote:
“The object of the proposed bill is to amend the Capital Markets Authority Act to…provide for virtual and digital assets [and] provide for tokenization and regulatory sandboxes.”
A bill to regulate virtual Assets issued on the Blockchain is in process. The clerk to @Parliament_Ug on 24th May wrote to @mofpedU to grant MP Nabeta Igeme a certificate of financial implication in respect his capital Markets Authority (amendment) bill 2023. @nbstv @rggoobi pic.twitter.com/xUNIlGQUvo
— Canary Mugume (@CanaryMugume) June 23, 2023
Before now
- Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are not recognized as legal tender in Uganda. A statement issued by the country’s minister of finance on October 1, 2019, classified the activities of crypto exchanges as unregulated and illegal.
- However, Ugandans were merely warned from transacting with cryptocurrencies. Virtual assets were not banned in the country.
- The Bank of Uganda reiterated this stance in April 2021 circular banning financial service providers from facilitating crypto-related transactions or risk their licenses being revoked.
- In what appeared to be a softening stance, the bank issued another circular expressing its willingness to test some crypto business models under its fintech innovative financial solutions regulatory sandbox.
Zoom out
- Uganda joins a growing list of countries walking back their stance on digital assets.
- More recently, the Namibian National Assembly passed a law to regulate the industry.
- Zambia said earlier this year that it was finishing tests on a technology to regulate digital assets. However, the Bank of Zambia had said publicly that cryptocurrencies were outlawed.
- The Mariblock Policy page contains our complete coverage of the African blockchain and digital asset regulation developments.
