Government establishes Crypto currency assessment ...

Government establishes Crypto currency assessment committee

Oscar J Jeke

Government has established a National Risk Assessment Coordination Committee on crypto currency to assess and evaluate the its operations and services offered, in a bid to promulgate a legal framework that protects and guides the provision of such services, with the Committee calling for all stakeholders to help assess and evaluate the service in the Zimbabwean landscape.

Crypto currency has off late risen in dominance globally with many companies as well as illegal entities using the service to trade, launder and finance terrorism among other purposes and functions, thereby providing an unprecedented threat.

In an advertisement, the committee noted the risks of the nature and extent of the crypto currency ecosystem in Zimbabwe, adding that the call extends to various service providers, companies and brokers to participate in the evaluation so as to assess the trends and best practices of the block chain.

“In line with global trends and best practices, Zimbabwe is embarking on an exercise to assess and understand the crypto-currency (also referred to as virtual assets) landscape in Zimbabwe.

The purpose of the assessment committee is to, among other things: determine the nature and extent of the crypto-currency ecosystem in Zimbabwe, asses and understand the risks of cryptocurrencies being misused for money laundering, terrorism financing and other illicit purposes and to recommend an appropriate regulatory framework.

"As part of the assessment process, the government has constituted a multi-stakeholder committee and mandated it to consult stakeholders in the crypto-currency ecosystem. The committee is therefore, inviting all crypto-currency service providers, whether operating in Zimbabwe or based outside Zimbabwe, but providing services to customers in Zimbabwe, to provide input into the national assessment process by answering the questionnaire accessible through the link,” wrote the Committee.

The committee also gave clarity on the definition of stakeholders that are invited to participate in the evaluation, that include companies, partnerships, trust, individual or businesses that provide block chain, crypto-currency or crypto-currency wallet hosting, crypto-currency exchanges, traders and brokers, management providers, initial coin offering providers and investment providers.