The Securities and Exchange Commission, Ghana (SEC) has launched the Africa Virtual Asset Summit (AVAS) 2026, a two-day gathering to be held on 2 and 3 November 2026 at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Accra. The summit, themed "Tokenisation: Africa's Pathway Towards Building a Trusted, Inclusive and Innovative Virtual Asset Ecosystem," aims to deliver practical outcomes, including the proposed Accra Declaration, a framework of shared principles and recommendations to advance responsible virtual asset and tokenisation ecosystems across the continent.
Africa's participation in virtual assets is already significant, but regulators need to ensure that the rules surrounding that activity are clear, consistent, and credible. Director-General Dr James Klutse Avedzi stated that Africa's participation in virtual assets is substantial, and that growth must be matched by frameworks that promote innovation, protect investors, and maintain confidence in the market. Ghana has put such a framework in place with the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), which establishes the legal foundation for supervised growth of the sector.
Tokenisation can unlock capital for African assets by enabling assets to be held in smaller digital interests, broadening the investor base, lowering the cost of capital, and making projects financeable that would otherwise remain inaccessible. Dr Avedzi noted that liquidity is value, and tokenisation can help achieve this with trust and investor protection built in from the outset. For Ghana, this opens a pathway to connect domestic and diaspora investors with productive assets and gives businesses an additional route to raise finance.
The summit will also focus on achieving continental alignment on licensing, supervision, and market rules, as virtual assets move freely across borders. Deputy Director-General Emmanuel Mensah Thompson stated that the Commission will use AVAS 2026 to advance continental alignment, citing a recent example where Ghanaian investors seeking to participate in a trans-African annuity product were required to route transactions through Canada due to regulatory constraints at home.
Regulatory peers and international partners are engaging with the initiative. Emomotimi Agama, Director-General of Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission, observed that no single regulator can supervise this market alone, as virtual assets do not respect borders. Ghana's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sabah Zita Benson, called for partnerships that move beyond policy discussion into investment and technology transfer.
The two-day summit will feature keynote addresses, regulatory panels, breakout sessions, and networking and investment conversations. The programme is expected to feature more than 40 speakers, with participants from more than 30 countries and over 2,000 attendees. Delegates will gain first-hand insight into emerging regulation, compare international best practice, explore tokenisation opportunities, and engage directly with regulators and investors.
The choice before African markets is no longer whether virtual assets will exist, but how they will be governed. The Commission welcomes securities regulators, central banks, ministries of finance, financial intelligence units, stock exchanges, banks, asset managers, pension funds, insurance companies, virtual asset service providers, fintech and technology firms, institutional investors, law firms, compliance professionals, academics, and development partners to help shape that governance in Accra.
Key points
- The Africa Virtual Asset Summit (AVAS) 2026 will focus on tokenisation and its potential to unlock capital for African assets.
- The summit aims to deliver practical outcomes, including the proposed Accra Declaration, a framework of shared principles and recommendations to advance responsible virtual asset and tokenisation ecosystems across the continent.
- The event will bring together regulators, market participants, and partners to shape the governance of virtual assets in Africa.
