Amid ongoing debates over tax policy and regulatory enforcement across Africa’s gambling markets, Nigeria and South Africa reinforced the credibility and stability of their regulated sectors this week.
With regulatory disruptions rife across Africa, the developments in two of the continent’s most significant markets have progressed the legitimacy of gambling across Africa.
South Africa was removed from the AML grey list after originally being added in February of 2023.
In its official announcement, the FATF stated that South Africa strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime to meet the commitments in its action plan.
This included a sustained increase in outbound mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests facilitating ML/TF investigations and asset confiscations aligned with its risk profile.
As well as this, the country took steps to bolster risk-based supervision of DNFBPs (designated non-financial business & professions).
Now that South Africa has been removed from the greylist, the country will have to adhere to stricter stipulations, however. Notably, the sanctions which could be implemented as a result of non-compliance with FATF frameworks have been heightened.
Amongst other issues, there was also a sustained increase in investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money-laundering and the full range of TF activities aligned with its risk profile.
Nigeria spent the same length of time on the grey list, the country was lauded for demonstrating sustained increases in money laundering investigations and prosecutions, proactive detection of currency declaration violations, and maintained comprehensive data on frozen/seized/confiscated assets.
The South Africa gambling framework is potentially on the cusp of a period of transformation as the country seeks to find balance between enabling growth and ensuring player protection. This has included significant lobbying in the country for a tightening of restrictions on gambling adverts.
Nigeria has also taken steps to significantly tighten the frameworks around its crypto sector tackling the ability of the sector to engage with users in the country.
Discussions over the gambling framework in Nigeria remain prevalent, specifically concerning the impact of Nigeria’s Central Gaming Bill.
Many reports in the country suggest there are fears around the bill diluting the control of the lottery from the state, leading to a petition being put forward pursuing the rejection of the bill.
Pursuit of the rejection of the bill largely comes from the Federation of States Gaming Regulators of Nigeria (FSGRN), underpinning major concerns over the way the establishment of a Central Commission would have on fiscal federalism in Nigeria.
A petition was released aiming to ensure that a central regulator can’t provide state licenses to operators, ensuring that this remains the responsibility of the state.
Nonetheless, the government has continually put forward the case that because iGaming crosses borders this should be the role of a universal operators.
The protection of state revenue is also integral to the bill, with fears it would be lost in the result of the formation of a nationwide commission.
The petition is calling for the nationwide governmental regulation to only oversee the FCT, which is where Abuja is located.
Rallying against the bill, the case has been put forward that it is unconstitutional and simply doesn’t align with the country’s federal system.
However, no matter how fervent and vocal opposition to the bill is, it may well be futile as the Bill has already progressed beyond its third reading in the National Assembly.
There is still a level convolution to its progress though, which will provide state regulators with optimism that it can be halted with enough friction.
Proponents of the bill have argued that it can eradicate growth of illicit operations and boost efficiency within the licensing process.
Mozambique and Burkina Faso were also removed from the list as a result of the steps they have taken to clean their respective frameworks.