With a well-established hybrid legal system, robust financial services supervision and a qualified multi-lingual workforce, Mauritius has the right features to make it the FinTech hub of the African continent. In 2019, the Financial Services Commission introduced the digital custodian licence to regulate the safekeeping and custody of digital assets.

This was a first step to position the Mauritian International Financial Centre as a regulated jurisdiction for digital assets. Alongside, a regulatory sandbox regime exists to enable pioneer start-ups and entrepreneurs FinTech activities for which no legal and regulatory framework exists. Mauritius has recently enacted a comprehensive legislation to regulate virtual assets and initial token offerings. The Virtual Asset and Initial Token Offering Services Act 2021, which is in line with the Financial Action Task Force standards, aims at regulating business activities around Virtual Assets by providing 5 classes of licences. Furthermore, it also regulates the process of initial token offerings.

Over the years, Mauritius has grown into an ideal platform to incubate FinTech projects for Africa and beyond. Mauritius acts as the catalyst to pan-African FinTech ecosystems in providing cutting-edge solutions for financial inclusion making Mauritius the strategic FinTech partner of choice for Africa.