Specialists in digital financial systems call on Mozambique to create a mechanism to regulate the operation of parallel digital currency markets to, among other things, prevent fraud and allow investors in these systems to channel revenues to the State.
Their concern results from the fact that the last decade has been marked by a drastic growth of the global financial market due to technological evolution that creates new parallel and independent markets, where assets, completely digital, have moved more than three trillion dollars daily for the past two years.
In view of this situation, Mozambique continues to be a free market for these operations, as it still does not have a law for digital financial transactions, so that, of the wealth that national investors produce in this market, nothing is channeled to the State coffers.
Some of the best known examples of this type of investment are the global and decentralized platforms (markets) for trading conventional currencies, known as Forex, and cryptocurrencies, called Blockchain.
These are markets whose operators are large companies, individual investors, world banks and other financial institutions.
During a lecture organized by the School of Communication and Arts (ECA) of the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the specialist in Financial Pyramids (PF), Lucca Matola, warned that, in addition to the loss of income related to transactions carried out in the market of cryptocurrencies, the country is vulnerable to PF schemes that continue to victimize Mozambicans.
In turn, academic and researcher in digital currencies Celestino Joanguete said that the State should regulate and tax the operation of cryptocurrencies. To this end, the Central Bank will have to find a formula for this purpose.
Speaking in the same vein, Professor Joanguete said that at the level of the region there have already been advances in legislation on the functioning of the digital financial system and the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of exchange.
"Studies indicate that in the near future Africa could be the biggest user of cryptocurrencies", said.
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In this sense, countries such as South Africa, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Botswana, Cameroon, Liberia, Senegal and, recently, Nigeria have already legislated the digital financial market and the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of exchange and store of financial value.
He also said that countries like Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Algeria, Libya and Morocco have already registered movements of investors in this market, however, they are still undecided about their adhesion to the market.
In the Mozambican case, the only time the Government has pronounced on the matter was in 2008 through a statement from the Bank of Mozambique (BM) which warned citizens about the precautions to be taken if someone wanted to invest in this market.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan government is licensing brokerage firms and is already adopting cryptocurrencies as a current asset in its financial operations.
Assuming the existence of investors and brokers in digital financial markets such as Forex and Blockchain, scholars warn that “if the Bank of Mozambique does not regulate this sector, the goods purchased using that currency will continue without paying taxes on these transactions to the State".
Because of this independence from government financial systems, in recent years this form of money has been preferred in international transactions. It is used for various day-to-day purposes such as payments, purchases, investments, savings profitability, among others.
