The Bank of Ghana is cautioning that efforts to regulate virtual assets and blockchain technologies must not undermine the role of the cedi in the domestic financial system.
Acting Head of FinTech and Innovation Department at the Central Bank, Owureku Asare, raised the concern at the inaugural Ghana Virtual Assets and Financial Services Symposium organized by the Chamber of Digital Assets and Blockchain Innovation (CDABI).
He stressed that while digital asset regulation is necessary to support innovation and investor protection, the cedi must remain central to Ghana’s monetary framework and continue to serve as a key symbol of economic sovereignty.
“I can also assure you that there’s a lot of work that is ongoing. The Acts has been passed and has been assented to. But you agree with me that we will provide the level of information to the legislature for them to be able to go through.
“Until the Act got passed, we won’t be able to say with certainty that everything that we proposed is what will be passed. So I think this now gives us the opportunity to go through the process of coming up with our directives and other different regulations to be able to guide the market. And I think, let’s be very clear, this is not to replace the Ghana Cedi.
“If I need to use policy address, I just want to reiterate that we are doing this to ensure that the sector thrives and the inefficiencies that exist with the current fiat system will be improved based on what innovation has brought to us,” Owureku Asare said.
The development comes at a time when President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) bill into law, formally ushering Ghana into a regulated virtual assets ecosystem and marking a significant milestone in the country’s financial sector development.
