The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has ordered all of the country’s banks to cease “all crypto-related activity until a regulatory framework has been put in place.”
The NBR’s acting governor, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, defended the organization’s activities in a letter sent to managing directors and CEOs of financial institutions.
She said customers are left without the “guarantees and safeguards associated with regulated financial services” because the majority of crypto assets are unregulated. In its letter, the NRB details other instances in which con artists like Gerald Cotten of the Quadriga cryptocurrency exchange and Ruju Ignatova of Onecoin have defrauded cryptocurrency investors.
Only 25% of sub-Saharan African nations have established cryptocurrency regulations, according to an IMF report released in November.
Six nations—Cameroon, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and the Republic of Congo—have banned cryptocurrency, while the other two-thirds have imposed certain limitations.
All banks in Zimbabwe have been instructed to halt processing crypto transactions, while a local cryptocurrency firm in Liberia has been told to stop operating.
In the past, many African nations have outlawed transactions involving cryptocurrencies.
NBR aims to safeguard users from the volatile crypto economy.
The Central Bank of Rwanda thinks that consumers of cryptocurrencies are exposed to a market lacking “the protections and safeguards associated with regulated financial services.” Thus, limits have been placed on financial institutions to shield them from a potential collapse and prevent them from actively participating in transactions using cryptocurrencies.
Rwanda has joined the list of African nations that forbid banks from handling cryptocurrency transactions, along with Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
23 African nations have banned the usage and sale of cryptocurrencies in their economies as of the end of 2021.
Read more on Tech Gist Africa:
South African cryptocurrency platforms must be regulated by 2023
Namibia has launched Crypto Kiosk, the country’s first Bitcoin ATM
The President of the Central African Republic supports cryptocurrency despite setbacks
Nigeria’s market regulator has published crypto asset regulations
