Pan-African cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has been granted a licence to operate in Botswana, the company announced late Monday.
Yellow Card chief executive Chris Maurice said the company became the first cryptocurrency company on the continent to be granted a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence to operate in Botswana.
The licence was issued by Botswana’s Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority at the end of September, he said.
“This opens up greater channels of expansion with regards to payment partners, banking and expanding our client base across Africa,” Maurice said.
He added: “This will further show regulators in other markets that we are not just any other cryptocurrency company – we are pioneering, pushing boundaries and setting the standard.”
Yellow Card would target the unbanked population in Botswana where the majority of which does not have payslips and therefore do not have bank accounts, Maurice said.
Botswana is one of a few countries in the world taking significant steps to implement tighter regulations around cryptocurrencies and digital tokens.
JN/APA