Sub-Saharan Africa stablecoins

Overview

Most of the currencies represented here have exactly one token, and a single protocol issuer accounts for the majority of the roster.

That concentration is the region's defining fact. It means the answer to how a Ghanaian cedi or Kenyan shilling stablecoin behaves is largely one answer, given by one issuer's collateral model, rather than a comparison across a competitive field.

Sources: Mento, cNGN

Market structure

Two genuinely different models sit side by side here, and the difference is larger than it first appears. Mento issues most of the region's currencies, and it runs two backing models. Its documentation states that the Reserve backs the dollar and euro units with other issuers' fiat backed stablecoins, while a collateralised debt position system forked from Liquity v2 lets a currency token be borrowed against the dollar unit instead. On 3 October 2026 Mento's reserve dashboard listed three borrowed markets, the pound, yen and Swiss franc units, and counted the other 12 Mento stablecoins, the region's naira, rand, shilling, cedi and CFA franc units among them, in the Reserve backed set. On the same reading the Reserve held about $21.0 million: dollar stablecoins at 59.9%, euro stablecoins at 10.4%, and CELO, stETH and ETH at 29.7%. A Mento shilling or cedi is a claim on that Reserve, and nothing in the chain touches a shilling or a cedi. Nothing in it produces an attestation either, because the Reserve's holdings are onchain rather than an offchain balance for an accountant to count.

cNGN takes the opposite route. It is issued by Wrapped CBDC Ltd, a member of the Africa Stablecoin Consortium, and its transparency page links monthly reserve reports by Bala Isah Garba and Company. The report as of 31 August 2026 describes naira reserves in money market funds, Nigerian Treasury bills, bank deposits and fixed-term deposits, held in segregated accounts with regulated financial institutions.

The Nigerian naira is the only currency in the region with more than one independent issuer, cNGN and LINK.IO's NGNC, and the South African rand carries a protocol token, ZARm, alongside an independent one, ZARP. Everything else here is a single coin per currency.

Sources: Mento protocol documentation, collateralized debt positions, Mento protocol documentation, the Reserve, Mento reserve dashboard, Africa Stablecoin Consortium, cNGN FAQ, cNGN transparency page, cNGN attestation report as of 31 August 2026, LINK.IO NGNC, ZARP transparency

Regulation

A Securities and Exchange Commission Nigeria circular dated 2 July 2026 names Wrapped CBDC Ltd, the issuer of cNGN, among firms admitted to its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme with an Approval-in-Principle. The circular itself states that an Approval-in-Principle is not a final licence and remains conditional on continued compliance. The Africa Stablecoin Consortium's site describes cNGN as Nigeria's first licensed naira stablecoin, and the notes to the issuer's attestation report as of 31 August 2026 describe the company as licensed by the SEC under the programme. The circular's own wording is the narrower one.

An Approval-in-Principle is a real step and it is not an examination of anyone's naira.

Sources: SEC Nigeria circular, 2 July 2026, Africa Stablecoin Consortium, cNGN attestation report as of 31 August 2026

Common questions