Regulating the Emerging Mobile Money Services and National Digital Currencies in Nigeria and South-Africa

The evolution of digital financial platforms and other species of ‘internet banking’, has enabled new opportunities for greater participation of people, particularly the masses, in the official payment arrangements in Nigeria and South Africa. Smart-technology-enabled- financial market has resulted in financial inclusivity by affording the poor the leverage to transact in the money market and sundry economic activities previously seen as a preserve of the elite. The emergence of internet financial solutions constitutes part of an amazing circle in the evolving financial technology (fintech) which has birthed the recognition of digital currencies in most countries. This paper adopts the doctrinal method of legal research in evaluating the attempts to bureaucratically govern internet financial platforms and their products by legislation and regulatory mechanisms in Nigeria, South Africa and other African countries like Zimbabwe, particularly the proposed introduction of National (Central Bank) Digital Currencies. Leveraging the African Union (AU)’s economic blueprint of promoting trade synergy amongst member states, also known as Agenda 2063. This paper advocates for synergy while making a case for a robust statutory framework to sustain fintech operations in Nigeria and South Africa, which in turn would drive the African regional economic integration through the evolving cashless policy design.