A digital-finance seminar in Yaoundé has put USDT and stablecoins back at the centre of the CEMAC debate. The sensitive point may be loss of use cases rather than official replacement of the CFA franc.
Three anchors to enter the analysis without losing the thread.
01
A stablecoin begins with a promise
Imagine a shop gives you a token and promises that it can always be exchanged for one dollar.
02
Why not just use a dollar bank account?
A bank transfer may depend on banking hours, correspondent institutions, foreign-exchange rules and destination countries.
03
The CFA franc does not need to disappear to lose some functions
It is used to pay, price goods, store value and settle obligations.
Imagine a Cameroonian trader who regularly buys goods from Dubai.
Income arrives in CFA francs, but suppliers think in dollars.
Traditionally, the trader needs banks, foreign exchange and several intermediaries.
Now imagine keeping on a phone a digital asset that tries to remain worth one dollar and can be sent at any hour.
At that point, the word “stablecoin” becomes much less abstract.
On 29 and 30 September 2026, the African Institute of Digital Finance is holding a seminar in Yaoundé on the future of digital finance in Central Africa. The announced topics include USDT and stablecoin regulation in CEMAC, virtual-asset service providers and how blockchain-based finance could develop without bypassing the CFA franc.
The seminar itself does not set CEMAC monetary policy.
But it reflects a question the BEAC is already asking publicly: what happens if privately issued dollar-backed digital money becomes more convenient for certain uses than the CFA franc?
A stablecoin begins with a promise
Imagine a shop gives you a token and promises that it can always be exchanged for one dollar.
As long as you trust the shop, you can use the token without carrying the banknote itself.
A stablecoin uses a related idea on a digital network.
It is a crypto asset designed to maintain a stable value relative to another asset or currency.
For USDT and USDC, the reference is the US dollar.
That does not make them digital dollar notes issued by the US Federal Reserve.
They are generally issued by private companies that maintain reserves and redemption mechanisms intended to support the peg.
That difference matters.
The stablecoin resembles a dollar claim.
It is not central-bank money.
That distinction does not prevent a very real monetary effect. In May 2026, the Bank for International Settlements estimated that roughly 98 percent of stablecoin value was denominated in US dollars. Stablecoins are therefore, to a large extent, also a digital-dollar phenomenon.
That is why the issue matters so much for emerging economies. A technology that makes payments easier can simultaneously make everyday access to a foreign currency easier.
Why not just use a dollar bank account?
Because the mechanics are different.
A bank transfer may depend on banking hours, correspondent institutions, foreign-exchange rules and destination countries.
A stablecoin can move on a blockchain at any hour if both parties have the necessary tools and the network is operating.
A blockchain can be understood as a shared transaction ledger. Instead of one bank keeping the only record, many machines maintain and verify the ledger according to the network's rules.
This can make transfers fast and programmable.
It also moves risk into new places: wallet mistakes, fraud, platform failure, issuer reserves and the difficulty of converting back into conventional money.
A new rail does not eliminate risk.
It reallocates it.
The CFA franc does not need to disappear to lose some functions
Money performs several jobs.
It is used to pay, price goods, store value and settle obligations.
A currency can remain official while losing part of one role.
People in some economies may still use local currency for daily purchases while preferring dollars for savings.
The local currency has not disappeared.
It has lost part of its role as a store of value.
Stablecoins can make access to foreign-currency exposure easier because a smartphone can hold a dollar-linked digital asset.
That is why the debate is larger than crypto trading.
It is about how people choose monetary tools.
BEAC's concern is digital dollarisation
In May 2026, BEAC Governor Yvon Sana Bangui publicly argued for a sovereign digital instrument pegged one-to-one to the CFA franc rather than broad adoption of private dollar-backed stablecoins.
The concern is monetary.
Large-scale demand for dollar stablecoins can create additional demand for foreign currency and move some activity outside channels the central bank directly supervises.
The IMF identifies a similar risk for emerging markets.
Its stablecoin work notes that foreign-currency stablecoins can make currency substitution easier, particularly where users want a stable unit of value or simpler cross-border payments.
That does not mean stablecoins automatically destroy local currencies.
It means they can lower the friction of accessing a foreign currency.
Convenience is also a form of competition
Imagine two markets.
One requires a long drive, paperwork and waiting. The other lets you buy the same goods in ten minutes.
Users may gradually change habits without anyone declaring the second market “officially superior”.
Money also competes on convenience.
People care about transfer cost, international access, availability, stability and trust.
Stablecoins can operate around the clock and move across borders quickly.
If those features solve important problems for traders, freelancers or companies, some use cases can migrate even while the CFA franc remains legal tender.
USDT is not magic
The opposite story can also be exaggerated.
Stablecoins are sometimes presented as an automatic solution to African payment problems.
They are not.
Users still need ways to buy and sell them. Fees exist. Exchange rates can vary. Platforms can freeze accounts. Wallet mistakes can be difficult to reverse.
And a stablecoin's stability ultimately depends on the issuer, reserves and market confidence.
Technology does not remove trust.
It changes where trust sits.
The mobile-money lesson
Mobile money did not eliminate banks.
It began by solving specific problems better: sending small amounts, receiving money quickly and paying services without travelling.
Then usage expanded.
Banks still exist, but part of everyday finance moved to the phone.
Regional figures show the scale of that change. BEAC reports more than 51 million mobile-payment accounts opened across CEMAC in 2024, with more than 3.7 billion transactions worth about CFA34.8 trillion during the year.
Those figures do not represent 51 million distinct active people; BEAC itself warns that one user may hold several accounts. They still show how a new financial tool can become everyday infrastructure without eliminating banks or the official currency.
That history does not prove stablecoins will follow the same path.
It shows that a new financial tool does not need to replace the existing system to become important.
It can win a few recurring use cases first.
CEMAC's emerging answer is digitalisation without losing the monetary unit
BEAC's stated direction favours a digital CFA-linked instrument rather than private dollar stablecoins.
The logic is clear: offer digital functionality while keeping the unit of account tied to the regional currency.
But users will judge the result by experience.
Regulation matters.
So do cost, availability, interoperability, cross-border reach and ease of use.
A sovereign digital instrument that is difficult to use will not win simply because it is official.
The legal framework is still evolving
CEMAC's current position is more nuanced than “crypto is banned”.
Since 2022, COBAC has prohibited supervised financial institutions from holding, using, exchanging or converting crypto assets for themselves or third parties.
At the same time, regional frameworks increasingly recognise digital assets and virtual-asset service providers for financial-market and anti-money-laundering purposes. COSUMAF, for example, recognises a category of digital-asset service providers for activities within the regional financial market, subject to licensing and supervisory requirements.
The 2024 CEMAC AML/CFT regulation includes virtual-asset service providers within its compliance perimeter.
That means the region is no longer treating the sector as if it does not exist.
It does not mean a complete stablecoin regime is already settled.
That is precisely why the current debate matters.
The contest also plays out at the interface
Imagine a hotel that still owns its reception desk, but 90 percent of customers book, pay and communicate through an external app.
The reception still exists.
Yet the app controls much of the relationship.
Stablecoins raise a similar question.
If a trader earns and pays taxes in CFA francs but pays foreign suppliers in USDT and stores part of savings in dollar-linked tokens, which monetary system shapes the trader's financial experience?
There is no single answer.
But it is a more useful question than asking whether USDT will simply “replace” the CFA franc.
The CFA franc remains deeply embedded in salaries, taxes, accounting, banks and daily commerce.
Stablecoins are not replacing that infrastructure overnight.
They may, however, compete for specific functions.
The most important policy question is therefore practical: which problems are users trying to solve with stablecoins that existing financial rails solve poorly?
The strongest competitive pressure will appear around those poorly served uses.
Sources and method
Facts that may change over time were checked against the sources below. Observations and interpretations are presented as such in the article.
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