{
  "id": 17833704,
  "title": "Spending and regulation hold back stablecoins in Africa, Moonshot panel says",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/02/spending-and-regulation-hold-back-stablecoins-in-africa-moonshot",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-11-02T17:25:51.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCabal",
    "slug": "techcabal",
    "url": "https://techcabal.com/2026/11/02/spending-and-regulation-hold-back-stablecoins-in-africa/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A panel at Moonshot by TechCabal highlighted the challenges preventing stablecoins from gaining wider adoption in Africa, despite their efficiency compared to traditional banking methods. Shalom Osiadi, founder and CEO of Esca Finance, and Demilade Olugbenga, B2B business development manager at Breet, discussed the adoption gap at the event on October 29.\n\nOlugbenga noted that while some individuals use stablecoins, they often cannot spend them in daily applications. For instance, a freelancer receiving payment in stablecoins may be unable to use the funds if no stablecoin option is available. In Sub-Saharan Africa, $205 billion in crypto value was moved on-chain between July 2024 and June 2025, with Nigeria receiving $92.1 billion. Stablecoins accounted for about 43% of the region's crypto volume during this period.\n\nAccording to Olugbenga, sending amounts ranging from $5 to $500,000 through Breet costs just 10 cents, while bank transfers can take days and consume up to 8% of the transferred amount. Osiadi explained that banks charge these high rates because African currencies can fluctuate before a transfer completes, which allows them to build significant margins into their exchange rates.\n\nCentral banks require visibility into the origin, destination, and usage of money, yet privately issued stablecoins provide no such insight, according to Osiadi. Nigeria has pursued two strategies. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the eNaira, their first central bank digital currency, in October 2021, but found in 2023 that 98.5% of eNaira wallets remained unused on a weekly basis. Additionally, cNGN, a stablecoin pegged to the naira issued by WrappedCBDC, debuted in February 2025 under the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) regulatory incubation program.\n\nOsiadi suggested that the CBN should either issue a stablecoin itself or collaborate with entities like cNGN. Most of Esca's clients do not concern themselves with the movement of their money, and Esca processes between $75 million and $120 million monthly for clients like NALA and MoneyGram. They route payments through stablecoins that their corporate clients rarely encounter, stating that the focus should be on value creation for their business.\n\nBreet plans to make stablecoins usable where people already transact. If TechCabal's attendees wanted to pay using stablecoins, Olugbenga explained, Breet would accept the payment, convert it, and settle TechCabal in either dollars or naira. Both panelists expressed confidence that adoption will increase as banks join the market, urging regulators to work alongside operators. The SEC has proposed rules requiring foreign-pegged stablecoins to receive approval before being listed on or held within regulated Nigerian platforms, but these new regulations will significantly impact adoption as much as the products themselves.",
  "summary": "Stablecoins already move money in and out of Africa fast, but a lack of mainstream use holds back its adoption.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}