By: Aminah Ndeulita
Namibia has been edging towards embracing cryptocurrencies for a while now, but more work is required if the country is to unleash the full potential this radical new technology offers.
In July last year, parliament passed the Virtual Assets Act into law. This regulation mandated the establishment of a regulator to oversee the crypto sector and set out the requirements that service providers like crypto exchanges must meet to obtain licences.
While this may sound like a niche legal development, in fact, the move represented a major shift for the authorities in Namibia. Only a few years ago, back in 2018, the central bank announced it was strongly against the use of crypto as a method of payment for goods and services.
Although this position was eventually dropped last year, it is a sign of how resistant some of Namibia’s institutions have traditionally been to the innovation that is taking place in the world of crypto and decentralised finance.
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