South Africa's 2024 budget highlights a strategic vision for digital payment advancement, emphasizing the exploration of stablecoins and blockchain to enhance the well-being of marginalized groups. The National Treasury plans to introduce policy changes, specifically addressing stablecoins as a distinct crypto asset category, with a comprehensive analysis of their potential use cases and regulatory responses. The government also contemplates amendments to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, potentially mandating institutions to report crypto transactions exceeding 49,999 South African rand. Additionally, blockchain-based tokenization's impact on domestic financial markets will be scrutinized, with the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group set to publish a comprehensive paper outlining policy and regulatory implications by December 2024. Moreover, a collaborative three-year program with Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and FinMark Trust will drive four digital payment pilot projects, focusing on community digitalization, digitizing informal worker payments, facilitating cross-border remittances, and enhancing cross-border trade. This ambitious initiative aims to bolster small and informal businesses through innovative payment solutions, drawing inspiration from the successful application of blockchain technology in East Africa's agricultural sector, exemplified by a notable partnership between AgTech firm Dimitra and One Million Avocados (OMA) in Kenya on July 20, 2023.

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