The African Countries Best Positioned to Launch Local-Currency Stablecoins

Key Takeaways:

• A new analysis identifies Ghana, Rwanda, Namibia, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire as Africa’s strongest candidates for launching successful local-currency stablecoins. 
• The assessment is based on factors including monetary stability, regulatory progress, digital payment adoption and demand for cross-border settlements. 
• As Africa embraces dollar-backed stablecoins, the conversation is expanding to whether locally denominated stablecoins could strengthen domestic financial systems instead of accelerating dollarisation.

When stablecoins are mentioned, the conversation is typically about USDC, USDT, or other dollar-pegged coins. It doesn’t really matter where the conversation is happening; the story of stablecoins, especially in Africa, is often a dollar story. 

As of the time of publishing, the total market cap of stablecoins is over $310 billion. USDT, USDC, and other dollar-pegged stablecoins occupied the top ten slots in the rankings. USD-pegged stablecoins make up over 98% of the stablecoin total market cap.

Africa’s Stablecoin Conversation Is Entering a New Phase

A report by Yellow Card found that stablecoins, mostly USD-pegged, accounted for 43% of sub-Saharan Africa’s total cryptocurrency transactions in 2024. By October 2024, stablecoins displaced Bitcoin as South Africa’s most popular crypto asset. 

The 2026 BVNK Stablecoin Utility Report ranked Nigeria, the continent’s largest crypto market, number one in stablecoin ownership. They found that an estimated 59% of Nigeria’s crypto users held USDT and another 48% held USDC. 

A report by Standard Chartered and Zodia Markets asks questions about where non-USD stablecoins can scale and identifies which markets have the most demand for them. It scores over a hundred countries on the “potential for local-currency stablecoin demand” and ranks them. Over thirty African countries made the list, with twelve in the top twenty.

From Digital Dollars to Digital African Currencies

USD-pegged stablecoins gained a strong foothold in African countries and many emerging markets worldwide because they solved real problems. The rise of stablecoins on the continent coincided with the devaluation of the local currency in many markets. Many individuals turned to stablecoins to protect their savings from losing value. This provides at least one explanation for why stablecoin ownership is high in countries like Nigeria, which has experienced severe currency depreciation over the last ten years. 

Stablecoins also provide a cheaper option for Africans in the diaspora who need to send money back home and for remote workers receiving payments from abroad. Remittance costs to Sub-Saharan Africa are the highest in the world, averaging over 8% on $200. For African business owners facing foreign currency shortages, this provided a cheaper, more accessible way to pay suppliers.

This widespread adoption, however, comes with risk. Recently, the IMF warned Nigeria to regulate the use of stablecoins better, as widespread USD-pegged stablecoin use could lead to dollarisation. Dollarisation occurs when foreign currency, in this case, the dollar, or digital dollars, replaces domestic money for everyday transactions. It could affect a country’s monetary sovereignty and its policies. Central banks lose control over the domestic money supply because the citizens have abandoned local cash.

Instead of seeking to eliminate USD-dollar stablecoins—prohibition rarely works —local-currency stablecoins can be developed to sit alongside them. Stablecoins are far more dollar-heavy than the economy they’re meant to serve. They could be used for tokenised government bonds or programmable smart contracts. These do not need the dollar. 

How the Report Ranked the Candidates

Using data from the World Bank’s B-Ready 2025 dataset, the report developed a scoring model that factors in four variables. 

• Efficiency of financial services: countries with weaker banking systems scored higher because stablecoins could fill gaps that the existing system could not. 
• Efficiency of international trade: countries experiencing higher trade friction also scored higher, as this meant they had more reason to settle cross-border trade transactions in stablecoins. 
• Broader operational efficiency: countries with smoother business environments scored higher here because a supportive business environment supports adoption. 
• Regulatory clarity: countries with clearer rules and frameworks scored higher because they are more likely to attract stablecoin issuers and institutional investments. 

The report makes it clear, however, that its ranking is based on where the incentive for a local stablecoin is. It doesn’t measure the country’s readiness to issue and launch one. 

Who Actually Tops the List

Côte d’Ivoire ranked the highest on the list with a score of 68.2. Angola follows at number 2, scoring 66.1. The Central African Republic and Togo follow at numbers 3 and 4, with scores of 63.8 and 62.7, respectively. At ranks 7, 8, and 9, we have Benin, Sierra Leone, and Namibia, with scores of 60.1, 60, and 59.2, respectively. Ghana, Chad, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, and Senegal all make the top 20. 

Interestingly, seven of the top twenty countries use CFA Franc. Four out of these countries use the West African CFA Franc, and three use the Central African CFA Franc. A single well-designed CFA stablecoin, pegged to either the XOF or the XAF, could potentially serve multiple countries at once. This would give it a structural advantage that a single-country currency doesn’t have. 

Why Ghana, Rwanda and Namibia Matter

Except Namibia, none of these countries make the top ten in the rankings. However, these markets have unique strengths that could favour a local stablecoin launch.

Ghana has one of the continent’s most advanced mobile money ecosystems. Reports from the Bank of Ghana show that mobile money balances grew over 38% between June 2025 and June 2026, from GHC 28.9 billion to GHC 40 billion. This, combined with an active regulatory sandbox, provides private issuers with a clear pathway to develop compliant tokens. 

Rwanda has made its ambition to be a hub for fintech and digital innovation known, which issuers could benefit from. On the list, it scored highest for operational efficiency, a sign of its innovation-friendly policies. Earlier this year, the country’s parliament also passed its first virtual asset law. Its Capital Markets Authority also signed an MoU with the Nigerian SEC, which extends to virtual assets.

Namibia offers regulators and issuers a more stable economic environment in which to test local stablecoins. It has a modest market size, a stable banking sector, and lower inflation than many other countries in the region. 

Nigeria Proved the Concept and Exposed the Problems

Nigeria has had multiple experiences with digital currencies, but it cemented its place as a pioneer with the launch of the cNGN. The cNGN is a naira-pegged stablecoin backed 1:1 by reserves held in commercial banks. Launched in February 2025, it is the most widely adopted local-currency stablecoin on the continent.

Despite this, the actual adoption and transaction values are low. As of the time of publishing, the number of holders was 7,366. The total on-chain transaction count was 378,190, and the total traded volume was just over 210 billion naira. Issuers have held early talks with Yellow Card and Roqqu, both major regional exchanges, but nothing came of it. Its best use case and adoption came in the middle of the year with the launch of HyperFX. 

cNGN has the regulatory approval. What it struggles with is use cases. Adoption in the country was driven by people fleeing the currency risk tied to the naira. What benefit would a naira-backed stablecoin provide to them? Issuers in the countries on this list will need to provide deep liquidity for their tokens and establish a genuine reason to hold it. 

The Biggest Hurdle is Trust, not Technology.

USDT and USDC have spent over a decade building and establishing trust. While it helps that they are pegged to a currency most people trust, most local-currency stablecoins do not have that feature. They would need to establish transparent 1:1 cash reserves. They’d need to show people that they can easily redeem their stablecoins back into fiat cash and develop a deep exchange liquidity pool. Any local stablecoin that cannot guarantee this will not scale. 

Why This Matters

Pan-African firms like Yellow Card and Flutterwave can integrate local tokens directly into user wallets, reducing costs and speeding up cross-border settlement with neighbouring markets. If Africa becomes a multi-stablecoin continent, it could smooth regional trade and interoperability. Central banks worried about capital flight driven by foreign stablecoins could ease those concerns with well-regulated local stablecoins. They’d provide a bridge between traditional finance and blockchain while preserving monetary policy.