The South African Treasury 2024 budget proposal to encourage the use of digital payments was made public in the country's yearly budget published yesterday. It involves looking into stablecoins and blockchain technology to “improve the lives and livelihoods of marginalized groups.”

The nation's budget assessment for 2024 emphasized the necessity of structural changes and an emphasis on enhancing public financial management. The National Treasury revealed an impending policy change on crypto assets, specifically for stablecoins, while outlining its intention to boost digital payments.

According to the proposal, the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group of South Africa will investigate how stablecoins can be applied more effectively and the regulatory implication(s) involved.

By December 2024, the committee will release a paper on tokenization policy as they are also investigating the impact of tokenization on the domestic markets

Furthermore, changes might be made to the Financial Intelligence Center Act that will mandate all institutions to disclose cryptocurrency transactions above 49,999 South African rand ($2,650).

In addition, the South African government will oversee a three-year initiative to carry out four pilot projects for digital payments in association with FinMark Trust and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland. This initiative aims to use payment innovation to promote small-scale businesses.

The four pilot projects include the digitalization of informal and low-income worker payments, cross-border trade, cross-border remittances, and community digitalization .