Ghana to begin digital Cedi pilot in September - BoG

Speaking after the opening session of a two-day training for Journalists for Business Advocacy on Understanding Monetary Policy in a Post-Pandemic Era, the First Deputy Governor said the digital cedi was important to deepening digital transactions in the economy.

“Digital Currency is part of the central bank acknowledging the need for digital payment and digital delivery of financial services. By this, the Bank of Ghana will provide a platform on which we can add more value to digital transactions,” Dr Opoku-Afari said.

“We have to take out time to design it with all the security features and so have started it in a pilot phase through what we call a sand-box to learn lessons before we open it up to the general public,” he added.

According to him, the outcome of the pilot will determine whether digital currency would be approved by the BoG or not.

“The central bank’s digital currency is FIAT money, it is cash on its own so that the financial institution like the banks and Fintechs will be able to create value addition on the digital cash,” he opined.

Meanwhile, traditional banks, mobile operators and fintechs have invested heavily in deploying various client led solutions aimed at facilitating the delivery of efficient payments and collections services in the economy.

According to the recent PWC Ghana Banking Survey Report 2020, the traditional mode of banking (face-to-face) changed during the COVID-19 crisis with mobile banking becoming the most preferred medium of banking. From a corporate and business banking perspective, we have also seen an increase in the use of digital solutions (web and mobile) such as Stanbic Bank’s Business Online and Host-to-Host solutions with document upload feature as a means of keeping the business going whilst adhering to the COVID-19 protocols.