Virtual Assets and Consent Management Must Go Hand in Africa
The digital revolution sweeping across Africa is not just a matter of convenience, it’s a quiet but profound restructuring of how value is created, stored, and exchanged. Across the continent, the language of financial services is changing and virtual assets is one of such evolutions.
Virtual assets are digital representations of value, from cryptocurrencies and stablecoins to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and tokenized assets.
Mobile-first financial cultures, informal economies, youthful populations, and cross-border trade challenges have made Africa one of the world’s most fertile grounds for digital asset adoption. Many Africans are embracing virtual assets not just because they are new, but because they solve real problems: expensive remittances, unstable currencies, limited access to banking, and the sheer inefficiency of legacy systems. And yet, amidst the promise, one question stands tall: Are we ready?
Being ready doesn’t just mean having platforms that work or apps that are fast. It means having governance systems that protect. It means building digital markets that are secure, fair, and inclusive. And critically, it means designing consent frameworks that place individuals at the center of control over their data, identity, and financial decisions.
Let’s take Ghana as a case in point. Ghana has signaled strong intent to embrace digital finance, not with unchecked enthusiasm, but with deliberate steps to ensure safety, compliance, and trust.
One such milestone came when the Bank of Ghana partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to successfully pilot a digital cross-border trade settlement under the Ghana Integrated Financial Ecosystem (GIFE). A Ghanaian small business was able to engage in international trade, settle in local currency, and operate under a secure digital identity framework. It was a quiet revolution, but a landmark nonetheless. It proved that digital infrastructure, when anchored in strong governance, could facilitate real economic inclusion.
Around the same time, the Bank of Ghana launched an e-Cedi Hackathon, an initiative that brought developers, fintechs, students, and financial institutions together to experiment with the future of Ghana’s digital currency. The projects ranged from offline payments to cross-border wallet interoperability. It was a broader national conversation about how a digital currency should work for people, not just systems.
Earlier this month, the Bank of Ghana issued a directive requiring all Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to register by mid-August 2025. This directive is a precursor to the country’s first Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill, expected to be passed into law later this year. Ghana is building a structure for compliance, oversight, and consumer protection.
This is where consent frameworks become absolutely essential. Virtual assets, by design, collect vast amounts of data, such as; location, identity, transaction history, behavior, and preferences. Without clear consent mechanisms, users may unwittingly give up control over their data to platforms that are opaque, foreign, or simply unaccountable.
Fortunately, the Data Protection Commission – Ghana has a mandate to ensure that the Data Protection Act, Act 843 is enforced. The systems that power wallets, exchanges, tokenized credit products, and cross-border rails must be required to offer informed, revocable, and user-friendly consent mechanisms. This isn’t just a compliance issue, it’s a question of digital dignity.
And Ghana isn’t alone. Across the continent, regulators are waking up to the opportunity and the risk. South Africa has brought crypto into its financial services licensing framework. Nigeria has reversed its earlier bans and is now engaging with industry actors on how best to regulate crypto exchanges and wallets. Kenya is exploring ways to align its consumer data protection laws with its rapidly growing fintech ecosystem. But harmonization remains a challenge.
At the global level, a recent development worth noting is the GENIUS Act passed in the United States which is a landmark law that puts firm guardrails around stablecoin issuance. It mandates strict reserve backing, redemption obligations, and transparency. The GENIUS Act, while U.S. focused, signals where international expectations are headed: towards greater accountability, clear consumer protection, and transparency in digital asset ecosystems. For African markets engaging in global financial systems, such regulatory evolution is both instructive and timely.
Africa’s regulatory response must move in tandem. But we need to go one step further.
We must build consent into our digital public infrastructure; from digital ID systems to open banking APIs, virtual asset platforms, and CBDC networks. Consent should not be a buried checkbox in a 20-page privacy policy. It should be a clear, real-time interface where individuals can understand who has access to their data, why, for how long, and with the ability to change their mind at any time. This is how trust is built.It’s also how innovation becomes sustainable.
The real danger isn’t rapid adoption, it is invisible exploitation. If millions of users across Africa begin using virtual assets without understanding how their data is monetized, profiled, or even sold, we risk recreating the same patterns of inequality that many of these tools claim to solve. Vulnerable users (especially women, youth, and informal workers) may be exposed to predatory practices, hidden charges, or digital profiling without recourse.
The upside is enormous. With the right safeguards, Africa can lead the world in building an inclusive, ethical digital financial ecosystem. We can create systems where a woman in Tamale or Kisumu can access a low-interest loan using tokenized credit scores, powered by consented data, not extractive surveillance. We can make it possible for a student in Kumasi to invest in pan-African digital bonds through a wallet that respects their identity, rights, and choices. We can connect the informal economy to formal capital markets, not by forcing them to conform, but by designing systems around their realities.
To do this, we need more than rules, we need collaboration. Regulators, fintechs, banks, telcos, developers, and civil society must come together to build a shared understanding of what responsible digital finance means for Africa. We need interoperability not just of technology, but of values.
The African market is indeed ready. The energy, innovation, and user demand are undeniable. But to fully realize the promise of virtual assets, we must be equally ready to protect the people who power it. That readiness must be grounded in consent, accountability and equity. In the end, the future of finance is not just digital, it is deeply personal.
