The Governor of the Bank of Ghana has announced that the central bank has been working on a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The CBDCs project needs to be approached in phases and thus, the governor outlined three stages prior to deciding to launch a digital currency. These are a design phase, an implementation stage, and a pilot phase. The design stage is advanced, and the current focus is on the implementation phase.
After the implementation phase, the bank aims for a pilot phase, however few people would be able to use the electronic Cedi on the mobile applications and other payment applications that are currently running. After the pilot, the bank can decide if this is feasible to roll a CBDC, and what sort of things need to be tweaked to make it work effectively.
According to Ledger Insights, other African states that are exploring CBDC include Morocco, South Africa, Egypt (as of 2018), and possibly Kenya, although the Governor described the bank as ‘on the fringes’ of the exploration by global central banks.
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