Regulate cryptocurrencies now – Prof. John Gatsi to BoG, SEC

Prof. John Gatsi, an Economist and Dean of the University of Cape Coast Business School, has called on regulatory bodies in the financial sector of the country to put in measures for the regulation of blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies which is making waves all over the world.

He said the central bank, Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should make it a point to fastrack the process of regulating cryptocurrencies since it is likely to take over financial operations in the country soon.

He explained that the key stakeholders in the sector must act now by setting up regulatory policies to govern the operations of the cryptocurrency.

He said: “Ghana is not insulated from the significant developments in the cryptocurrency landscape and as such key stakeholders should stop the nonchalant attitude now and begin to scurry for regularisation before the impact is felt locally”.

Speaking in an interview with The Business and Financial Times monitored by GhanaWeb Prof. Gatsi said “Investors need to be educated to see that the burden, risk, bane and fallout from investing in a non-regulated asset is theirs alone. BoG and other regulatory bodies must provide definite frameworks to give the confidence of participation, as investors should not be participating in an unregulated asset,”.

He stressed that the world is going digital and Ghana is not left out of this development so there must a sensitization on red flags to look out for when investing.

“We all know that the whole world is going through digitization, with some ahead of others. We are touting the era of digitization, and the implication is that there will be much more interest in virtual currencies, transactions and exchanges; we should therefore rise to the occasion by providing protection and curbing fraud.” He said

Prof. Gatsi suggested that for a clear cryptocurrency regulatory regime for the alternative asset class, a two-form policy must be adopted, one that will protect potential investors from investing in assets that have no regulatory backing; and on the other, harness whatever potential benefits there are to gain from its regularization.