Uganda’s parliament is working on a bill to regulate virtual assets
The East African country is now looking to provide regulatory clarity for virtual assets and cryptocurrencies after initial hostilities.
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.
