French banking giant BNP Paribas’ latest annual World Payments Report has highlighted South Africa as one of the major driving forces behind a sharp increase in the adoption of cryptocurrencies worldwide.
The 2018 edition of the publication produced by the world’s eighth largest bank, suggests that is it is the light touch of regulation from South Africa’s central bank, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), that has prompted the development.
African Crypto Adoption Accelerates
According to BNP, the continent of Africa has been demonstrating strong initiative in its adoption of modern technologies. Mobile-based payments have expanded quickly in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, it notes. However, it is South Africa that leads in the way in cryptocurrency.
The report suggests that, since Kenya has banned cryptocurrencies and that since“The central bank of Nigeria has also imposed a complete ban on Bitcoin and the likes,” more adoptive countries in the continent have benefited from an increase in transaction volume.
One area singled out of where adoption of non-cash payments has had a positive impact is in combating institutional corruption as questionable activity can be “flagged and investigated, reducing the possible means of accepting illicit or fraudulent payments.”
On a global scale, the BNP Paribas report also identifies Singapore, the Philippines, the UK, France and Germany as being in the consultation phase but open to the adoption of cryptocurrencies.
They conclude by stating that governments should create “…the supporting infrastructure, bringing positive change with regulations and promoting non-cash transactions to create a conducive environment for digital transactions to grow.”
