Plans far advanced with Ghana's e-currency regime - BoG Governor

• The BoG Governor has said phase one of the e-cedi will be rolled out soon

• Ghana Commercial Bank is authorized to issue the e-money

• Currently, the country is undergoing a digitization phase and the mobile banking sector is booming

Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has stated that measures to roll out the country’s E-currency are steadily in progress.

He said the rollout will be in phases and the first phase is almost done.

Responding to series of questions asked at the 100th Monetary Policy Committee conference in Accra, the Governor noted that, his outfit is one of the first African banks to have announced measures to introduce an E-currency.

“The Bank of Ghana is one of the first African century banks to declare that we were working on a digital currency, looking at the concept of E-cedi. Yes, we are quite advanced in that process and as you know these type of things, you have to look at them in phases.”

“The first phase was really on design and electronic money, and I think that the team that is working on that has gone quite far in the design phase and we are looking at the implementation phase…After the implementation phase, we will have the pilot phase, where a few people will be able to use it, using a mobile application and other applications that are currently running and from that pilot, we will be able to determine whether it is feasible or not. So yes, we have made progress and we will be putting out some more information on that very soon,” he said.

Meanwhile, in 2019 the Bank of Ghana hinted at plans on issuing digital currencies.

The Bank of Ghana said it is considering the launch of a digital form of the national currency cedi to support electronic payment systems, such as mobile money.

Ghana’s proposed Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) initiative is in line with the country’s vision to digitize the financial and banking sector.

The Bank of Ghana is also in discussion with key stakeholders to explore all possibilities in launching a digital currency pilot project for e-cedi.

“Digital financial technologies will continue to define the future of our banking experience. This consistent growth pattern underscores the sustainable nature of opportunity for the banking sector,” he added.