SADC jurisdictions
All sixteen members: who regulates money there, how many of the instruments that oblige a payment business we have named and sourced, and the monetary bloc. Grouped by monetary arrangement rather than alphabetically, because that is the grouping that changes which exchange-control rules apply.
Common Monetary Area
Four members. Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini peg at par to the rand, which is legal tender in all three. Exchange control between them runs on terms available nowhere else in the region, and each still keeps its own payments regulator.
SZL · SZ
CBE
0 of 5 instruments named
LSL · LS
CBL · FIU
1 of 5 instruments named
The case that separates monetary arrangements from rails. Shares a peg and comparable banking arrangements with South Africa and still runs substantially on mobile money.
NAD · NA
BoN · FIC · NAMFISA
1 of 5 instruments named
Exchange control position is the highest-priority open question on the register.
ZAR · ZA
SARB · FIC · FSCA
3 of 5 instruments named
The regional anomaly. Deep bank and card infrastructure relative to every other member, which makes it a poor template for the receiving side of any corridor out of it.
SACU, outside the monetary area
Botswana is in the customs union and outside the Common Monetary Area; the pula floats against a basket. This is the distinction most often flattened into “southern Africa”, and flattening it is how a corridor gets designed on the wrong assumption.
BWP · BW
BoB · FIA · NBFIRA
1 of 5 instruments named
The distinction most often flattened. Customs union membership does not imply monetary alignment.
The rest of SADC
Eleven members, each with its own currency, regulator set and payments instruments. There is no regional default here — what obliges you differs by country, and assuming otherwise from a South African vantage point is the common error.
AOA · AO
BNA
0 of 5 instruments named
Lusophone. Fuel subsidy withdrawal under IMF pressure since 2023 is a live macro factor.
KMF · KM
No regulator established yet
0 of 5 instruments named
Smallest member; least covered in published research.
CDF · CD
No regulator established yet
0 of 5 instruments named
Francophone. Landlocked destination for corridors routed through Namibia and Zambia.
MGA · MG
No regulator established yet
0 of 5 instruments named
Francophone.
MWK · MW
RBM · FIA
1 of 5 instruments named
MUR · MU
BoM
0 of 5 instruments named
Financial centre; a materially different regulatory posture from the mainland members.
MZN · MZ
BdM
0 of 5 instruments named
Lusophone; regulator material is predominantly in Portuguese, which is a real research cost.
SCR · SC
CBS
0 of 5 instruments named
TZS · TZ
BoT
0 of 5 instruments named
ZMW · ZM
BoZ
1 of 5 instruments named
Mobile money reaches roughly three times as many people on foot as bank branches do.
ZWG · ZW
RBZ
1 of 5 instruments named
Largest corridor by volume out of South Africa. Active enforcement against unlicensed currency dealing, and a history of central bank intervention in mobile money.