Ghana’s central bank has clarified that its proposed digital currency will not be built on blockchain. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has been working on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for at least a year.

What was said

  • “Let me make a clarification here, the eCedi is not being developed on a blockchain; the solution is totally different,” Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) assistant director of fintech and innovation Clarence Blay said at a recent mobile money forum in Accra.
  • During the event, which was organized by telecommunication company MTN Ghana, Blay emphasized that the BoG’s CBDC is being designed to work with existing payment rails — not to replace them.
  • “Because the eCedi is going to be a currency, the issue of trust and security is paramount to the Central Bank,” he said. “The central bank will use a unique technology solution to deploy the eCedi but not a blockchain solution.”

📬 Subscribe to Crypto Africa and receive updates about the latest crypto developments in Africa.

Worthy of mention

“We know that the blockchain has a potential for payment service provision, but we believe it is not a matured technology. So the Bank of Ghana will deploy a unique technology solution for the rollout of the eCedi.”

What you should know about the eCedi

  • The Bank started working for a digital cedi in 2021.
  • In an August 2021 press release, BoG said that it had partnered with Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to pilot a general-purpose CBDC in the West African country. G+D is a German company that provides banknote printing, smart cards, and cash handling systems
  • In June 2022, BoG started testing an offline version of the eCedi that uses a contactless smart card in a small town in the Western North Region of Ghana.
  • Although Blay said the eCedi would not use blockchain, he did not specify the “unique technology” that will power the CBDC.