The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants the Africa Virtual Assets Summit (AVAS) 2026 to help African regulators narrow regulatory differences and establish common approaches to the rapidly developing virtual asset market.
Speaking at the launch of AVAS 2026 in Accra, Emmanuel Mensah Thompson, Deputy Director-General, Finance at the SEC, said the Commission would use the summit to “coordinate African regulators” towards “continental alignment” on licensing, supervision and market rules.
The issue has gained importance as virtual asset businesses expand across borders, creating the need for consistency in licensing requirements, market definitions and supervisory standards across African jurisdictions.
Differences in regulatory frameworks can increase the cost and complexity of market entry for investors and financial institutions, while creating gaps that may allow activities to shift towards jurisdictions with less stringent requirements.
Owureku Asare, Head of the FinTech and Innovation Department at the Bank of Ghana, said Africa must therefore reduce the regulatory differences that could constrain the development of a continent-wide market.
“We have to harmonize our regulatory frameworks,” he said, stressing the need to reduce “regulatory asymmetry” between countries.
Asare said Ghana should play a leading role in shaping the regulatory direction of the sector, arguing that the country and other early movers have an opportunity to establish standards that can support wider participation across Africa.
“The future of African capital markets is now. Ghana needs to lead the path,” he said.
The emphasis on harmonisation also reflects the cross-border nature of virtual assets. Dr. Emomotimi Agama, Director-General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a message to the launch that regulators could not effectively supervise the market independently because “virtual assets do not respect borders.”
He called for stronger information sharing and harmonised standards to prevent responsible businesses from having to navigate what he described as multiple regulatory roadblocks across the continent.
Ghana is developing its own regulatory architecture under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), while the SEC has begun testing virtual asset business models through its regulatory sandbox.
A coordinated approach would help ensure Ghana’s domestic framework can operate alongside those being developed elsewhere in Africa. Greater consistency could make it easier for licensed businesses to expand across borders while giving regulators a clearer basis for cooperation on investor protection, market conduct and financial crime risks.
AVAS 2026, scheduled for November in Accra, is therefore being positioned not simply as an industry conference but as a forum for shaping how African markets interact with the virtual asset economy.
The summit is expected to address licensing, supervision, stablecoins, tokenisation, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, cybersecurity and investor protection as regulators and market participants consider the framework needed for a more integrated African virtual asset market.
