South Africa Bets on Wholesale CBDC: Digital Rand to Start with Banks, Not Citizens
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has announced the suspension of plans to launch a retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), choosing instead to concentrate on wholesale settlement infrastructure and the modernization of the national payment system. The regulator emphasizes that the primary task is to strengthen the connection between banks, the central securities depository, and payment networks before opening digital access to retail users.
The wholesale CBDC project, known as Project Khokha, is being implemented with the participation of Nedbank, Absa, FirstRand, and Standard Bank and is already testing real-time interbank transfers on a distributed ledger. According to the Central Bank, current pilots allow settlement times to be reduced from one day to a few seconds, while maintaining transparency and auditability.
South Africa is thus choosing a more conservative trajectory—not a revolution, but institutional evolution, where the CBDC serves as an overlay on the existing system, rather than a replacement for cash.
“CBDC is not a matter of technology, but a matter of trust. It cannot be launched with the push of a button,” commented Vlad Kostiuk, columnist for FUTURUM.
Source: South African Reserve Bank, November 2025.
