Ghana to launch Digital national currency

The governor of the West African nation’s central financial institution, Ernest Addison, announced  that Ghana is interested in launching a digital type of the nation’s foreign money, the cedi, in the “close to future” and is in talks to develop a pilot venture in a “sandbox surroundings.” Addison’s remarks, made at Ghana’s Annual Banking Convention, had been disclosed in a public transcript.

The Bank of Ghana governor stated Ghana is in the process speedy digitization and has a burgeoning cellular banking sector pushed by cell phones. “Cellular cash” transfers elevated by 70 p.c from 2017 to 2018, he stated. In a transfer to harness that sector, Addison stated he had licensed the central financial institution to situation cellular cash backed 1:1 by cedi and held in digital wallets. 

He added “So [the central bank] cannot create cash; they’re solely having a digital illustration of the cedi that the Bank of Ghana places into circulation. So it’s not crypto.”