Africa
South Africa signals cautious stance on stablecoins
Deputy governor asks if they are efficient payment method or a means of circumventing regulations
Court ruling sows confusion over crypto’s status in South Africa
Judge’s decision that bitcoin ‘is money’ directly contradicts verdict in ruling last year
Number of unplanned outages in RTGS systems doubles
Central banks with longest average downtime typically plan to upgrade system within a year
Working group minutes: tokenised platforms vs synchronisation
Central bankers weigh up merits of emerging technologies and debate stablecoin use cases
Two-thirds of RTGS systems now aligned with ISO 20022
Over 80% of central banks aligned with CPMI harmonised standards
RTGS systems with broader hours accessed by more financial firms
Number of non-banks with RTGS systems access doubles year on year
Central Bank of Nigeria announces high-level reshuffle
Four deputy governors take on new portfolios
RTGS systems’ running costs linked to operational hours
Two-thirds of infrastructure still operational for 7–12 hours daily
RTGS systems process nearly 200 million payments on average
Transaction values average $11.6 trillion among respondents
Sarb hikes interest rates for first time in three years
MPC split, though governor says this was more about timing than direction of travel
Number of RTGS fee-regulating central banks rises
More than two-fifths of retail payments ecosystem were diversified in 2025
Non-banks lack central bank oversight in some jurisdictions
One in five smaller central banks lack oversight on all payment systems
Behind the scenes of the Bundesbank’s capacity-building programme
A multi-year effort has helped shore up expertise at West Balkan central banks. Will African and former-CIS institutions be equally responsive to Eurosystem technical assistance?
Some payment departments struggle with staffing capacity
Payment teams from Africa and the Americas report highest staff shortage
Former central banker appointed as Senegalese prime minister
Decision comes as government grapples with ongoing debt crisis
Payments units have median staffing of 30 FTE personnel
Central banks say they are boosting staff numbers to keep pace with evolving technology
More African nations respond to inflationary effects of Iran war
Mauritius and Rwanda raise rates, though Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt opt to hold
Malawi FX crisis due to structural weakness, says deputy governor
Central bank has taken measures to boost reserves, but says real issue is economic management
Ghana looks to buy 30% of gold from mining companies
Negotiations with multinationals are ongoing as central bank seeks to shore up reserves
Zafar Parker on 25 years of reserve management at the Sarb
Amid evolving risk, the head of financial markets talks about the journey to excess balance transfers to the government as South Africa’s reserves rose from $20bn to $80bn
Uganda holds, but Zambia and Angola opt for cautious cuts
Economist says loosenings were motivated by positive inflation figures in southern African countries