Accra will host the Africa Virtual Asset Summit (AVAS) on 2 and 3 November 2026, bringing together regulators, investors, and industry leaders to discuss tokenisation and regulation reforms. The event, organised by Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will take place at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City.
The summit’s theme, “Tokenisation: Africa’s Pathway Towards Building a Trusted, Inclusive and Innovative Virtual Asset Ecosystem,” points to the continent’s growing involvement in virtual assets. Dr James Klutse Avedzi, Director-General of the SEC Ghana, said at the launch that Africa’s virtual asset market is significant and demanded regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation while protecting investors. Ghana’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), which came into effect recently, provides the legal foundation for supervised growth in the sector. The Act assigns the SEC responsibility over tokenisation, virtual asset issuance, exchanges, investment advisory services, and virtual asset funds.
The summit aims to produce the Accra Declaration, a framework of shared principles and recommendations to promote responsible virtual asset markets across Africa. It will also generate policy advice, facilitate dialogue between regulators and market participants, and encourage industry collaboration and cross-border partnerships.
Africa holds substantial physical assets including land, gold, cocoa, trade receivables, and infrastructure. The challenge lies in converting these assets into liquid, tradable capital. Dr Avedzi said, “Liquidity is value.” Tokenisation, which breaks assets into smaller digital units, could broaden investor access, reduce capital costs, and finance projects that are currently out of reach. For Ghana, this model could link domestic and diaspora investors to productive assets and provide businesses an alternative funding route. AVAS 2026 will focus on building trust and investor protection alongside tokenisation.
Virtual assets cross borders with ease. Emmanuel Mensah Thompson, Deputy Director-General of SEC Ghana, said the summit will push for continental alignment on licensing, supervision, and market rules. He cited an example where Ghanaian investors had to route transactions through Canada to access a trans-African annuity product due to local regulatory constraints. “Ghana needs to lead the path,” he said.
Regional regulators share this outlook. Emomotimi Agama, Director-General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, sent a message to the launch saying no single regulator can manage virtual assets alone because these assets do not respect borders. International partners are also involved. Sabah Zita Benson, Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland, urged partnerships that go beyond policy talk to investment and technology transfer, pairing the UK’s financial expertise with Ghana’s entrepreneurship.
The two-day summit will open with sessions on regulation, governance, and investor protection. Topics include licensing, market conduct, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT), stablecoins, supervision, and cross-border payments. Day two will focus on tokenisation, digital markets, and financial inclusion, with workshops on asset tokenisation across commodities, real estate, digital securities, and capital markets as well as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and digital payments.
The programme is anchored by six pillars: licensing, digital securities, AML/CFT, cross-border cooperation, international standards from organisations like FATF and IOSCO, and tokenisation. Other topics include digital asset infrastructure, custody, payment rails, digital identity, and compliance technology.
AVAS 2026 expects over 2,000 attendees from more than 30 countries and more than 40 speakers. The event 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.
The SEC stated at the launch that African markets no longer debate whether virtual assets will exist, but how they will be governed. The summit invites regulators, market participants, and partners to help shape governance in Accra.
According to Joy Online.
