Remote VASP serving residents in Botswana

Botswana operates a prior-authorisation licensing regime rather than a registration regime: section 9 of the Virtual Assets Act, 2025 (Act No. 4 of 2025) prohibits unlicensed virtual asset business, section 10 governs the application for a licence, section 11 its issue, section 12 requires a licence holder to have a physical office in Botswana, section 15 empowers NBFIRA to suspend or revoke a licence, section 36 creates general offences and penalties and section 38 provides administrative sanctions.

The Virtual Assets Act, 2025 (Act No. 4 of 2025) is the overarching Botswana framework for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, commencing 24 January 2025 under S.I. No. 9 of 2025 and repealing the Virtual Assets Act, 2022 by its section 40; it vests licensing and supervision in NBFIRA and maintains two licence types, the virtual asset service provider licence and the issuer of virtual token offerings licence recorded in the section 21 register.

No Virtual Assets Regulations, 2023 taking effect on 26 May 2023 exist in Botswana; the subsidiary-legislation powers are section 42 for rules and section 43 for regulations of the Virtual Assets Act, 2025, the only instrument made under that Act is the Virtual Assets Act (Date of Commencement) Order, 2025, S.I. No. 9 of 2025, and the sole regulations text NBFIRA publishes is headed 'Draft K. M 12.01.2022' over a blank 'Statutory Instrument No. ___ of 2022' made under the repealed 2022 Act.

Evidence fact bw.licensing.legal-entity-and-local-presence not found (may have been renamed).

Applicants must be a company incorporated in Botswana under the Companies Act.

Section 12 of the Virtual Assets Act, 2025 (Act No. 4 of 2025) is headed 'Licence holder to have physical office in Botswana' and requires a licensed virtual asset service provider to maintain a physical office in the country; the requirement is new and had no counterpart in the repealed Virtual Assets Act, 2022.

Senior management and key personnel are expected to be based in Botswana or demonstrate sufficient local oversight.

Botswana has two licence types only, the virtual asset service provider licence and the issuer of virtual token offerings licence recorded in the section 21 register of the Virtual Assets Act, 2025, so no 'Principal VASP Licence' exists; section 27 of that Act is headed 'Minimum capital requirements' but NBFIRA has published no capital figure, and the P500 000 unimpaired-capital floor in the claim has no source in Botswana law.

The Virtual Assets Act, 2025 provides for a virtual asset service provider licence and an issuer of virtual token offerings licence and for no other licence type, so no 'Limited VASP Licence' exists in Botswana; section 27 is headed 'Minimum capital requirements' and carries no published figure, and the P200 000 unimpaired-capital floor in the claim has no source in Botswana law.

The Virtual Assets Act, 2022 imposes no minimum capital on Botswana virtual asset licensees and gives NBFIRA no express power to demand a security deposit or financial guarantee; section 11 conditions the grant of a licence on the applicant being a fit and proper person with adequate resources, infrastructure and staff of appropriate competence, with financial status or solvency weighed under section 11(2)(a). The only Botswana text setting a financial-resources floor is the Virtual Assets Regulations, 2022 that NBFIRA publishes headed "Draft K. M 12.01.2022" with a blank Statutory Instrument number, whose regulation 4(1) would require cash equal to one half of estimated gross operating costs for the next 12 months.

Botswana is actively tightening its AML/CFT financial sanctions regime to address identified weaknesses, indicating the framework is being reformed rather than remaining a stable cornerstone already fully aligned with FATF standards.

Robust Policies and Procedures: VASPs must implement comprehensive internal AML/CFT policies, procedures, and controls.

Section 14(1)(a) of Botswana's Financial Intelligence Act, 2022 requires every specified party, which includes a virtual asset service provider, to designate an anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism compliance officer at management level who is in charge of internal programmes and procedures, record maintenance and the reporting of suspicious transactions, and who must be a fit and proper person; neither that Act, nor the Virtual Assets Act, 2022, nor the Financial Intelligence Regulations, 2022 makes the appointment subject to approval by NBFIRA.

Customer Due Diligence (CDD): Implementing strong CDD measures for all customers, including identifying and verifying the identity of natural and legal persons, and beneficial owners.

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Applying EDD for higher-risk customers or transactions.

Botswana requires a 20-year retention period, not five years. Section 32 of the Financial Intelligence Act, 2022 obliges a specified party, for 20 years, to maintain all records on domestic and international transactions from the date a transaction is concluded, and to keep customer due diligence records, account files, business correspondence and the results of any analysis for 20 years after the termination of a business relationship or an occasional transaction; regulation 18(3)(a) of the Financial Intelligence Regulations, 2022 likewise fixes at least 20 years for records of reports filed with the Financial Intelligence Agency, and an investigatory authority may require longer retention in writing.

Botswana's proceeds-of-crime statute is the Proceeds and Instruments of Crime Act, Chapter 08:03, as amended by Act No. 28 of 2014 and Act No. 8 of 2018; the Proceeds of Serious Crime Act occupied that same Chapter 08:03 before repeal and no Chapter 08:06 exists, while money-laundering reporting and confiscation-support duties for virtual asset service providers run through the Financial Intelligence Act, 2022 (Act No. 2 of 2022).

Botswana's operative anti-money-laundering statute is the Financial Intelligence Act, 2022 (Act No. 2 of 2022, Chapter 08:07), assented and commenced on 25 February 2022 and amended by the Financial Intelligence (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act No. 1 of 2025); it repealed the Financial Intelligence Act, 2019, which was Act No. 11 of 2019 and not No. 17, and it binds virtual asset service providers as 'specified parties' with customer due diligence under sections 16 and 20 and twenty-year record keeping under section 32.

AML/CFT guidance for Botswana virtual asset service providers is issued by NBFIRA under section 49(1)(c) of the Financial Intelligence Act, 2022, which requires supervisory authorities to establish and issue guidance notes in consultation with the Financial Intelligence Agency; the operative instrument is NBFIRA's guidance note 'Implementing AML/CFT Programmes' for non-bank financial institutions conducting virtual assets business, dated 10 March 2025.

NBFIRA's AML/CFT guidance for virtual assets business is the guidance note 'Implementing AML/CFT Programmes', dated 10 March 2025 and issued under section 49(1)(c) of the Financial Intelligence Act, 2022 and section 4(1)(c) of the Virtual Assets Act, 2025; no NBFIRA virtual-asset AML/CFT guidance note bearing a November 2022 date is published.

Evidence fact bw.aml.identification-and-verification-of-customers not found (may have been renamed).

Source of funds and source of wealth (especially for high-risk customers or large transactions).

Evidence fact bw.aml.beneficial-ownership-identification not found (may have been renamed).

Evidence fact bw.aml.ongoing-due-diligence-and-monitoring not found (may have been renamed).

NBFIRA publishes named public notices against virtual asset service providers in Botswana, comprising unlicensed-provider warnings against YellowOcta.com Trading Company on 13 September 2022, Berry Crypto Trading Platform on 12 December 2022 and FS Global Properties Limited Botswana on 13 March 2023, and a February 2026 notice revoking the licence of PAA Capital (Proprietary) Limited under section 15(b) of the Virtual Assets Act, 2025; none of these notices states a monetary penalty.

Botswana's operative virtual-asset statute is the Virtual Assets Act, 2025 (Act No. 4 of 2025), which commenced on 24 January 2025 under the Virtual Assets Act (Date of Commencement) Order, 2025, S.I. No. 9 of 2025, and whose section 40 repeals the Virtual Assets Act, 2022 (Act No. 3 of 2022); section 9 prohibits unlicensed virtual asset business, section 11 governs the issue of licences, and NBFIRA is the Regulatory Authority exercising supervisory and enforcement powers under the Act.

NBFIRA Advisory on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers (July 2021): https://www.nbfira.org.bw/news-media/media-releases/advisory-virtual-assets-and-virtual-asset-service-providers

Outcome: To educate the public about the risks of virtual assets and to caution against engaging with unregistered VASPs. It also served as a notice that a regulatory framework was being developed.

The prohibition on carrying on virtual asset business without a licence is section 9 of Botswana's Virtual Assets Act, 2025 (Act No. 4 of 2025), re-enacting section 9 of the repealed 2022 Act, and it requires a virtual asset service provider licence or an issuer of initial token offerings licence; section 5 of both Acts is instead the Regulatory Authority's power to request information.

Botswana's Virtual Assets Act places its interpretation provisions in section 2, not section 3, section 3 being the application provision; the repealed Virtual Assets Act, 2022 defined a virtual asset service provider as a person who under an agreement, as part of a business, undertakes a virtual asset service on behalf of another person, or who is a dealer or is willing to deal on own account by buying and selling virtual assets at prices set by that person, and the Virtual Assets Act, 2025 re-enacted that definition to cure the drafting deficiency ESAAMLG identified against the FATF standard.