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The Ghanaian Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, has urged African governments to start exploring digital currencies as such alternatives have the potential to enhance intra-African trade. According to a report, Bawumia made these comments while addressing guests at the Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference (GITFIC) opening ceremony in Accra. The report also quotes the vice president commending the Ghanaian central bank’s e-cedi project. He said the Ghanaian government is ready to “give it the needed credibility and legal backing for usage.”
Ghana is working on its CBDC.
As reported earlier, the Bank of Ghana (BOG) is one of the first African central banks to announce the start of the pilot phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, the final approval of this CBDC will depend on the outcome of the pilot phase. Concerning the Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the African continent’s central payment and collection infrastructure, the vice president explained that this would “allow businesses on the continent to clear and settle transactions in their local currencies without depending on third-party currencies.”
The digital currency payment system can be an efficient alternative.
Ghanian Vice President said that this system could also act as an “alternative to the current high-cost and long correspondent banking relationships by facilitating trade and other economic activities across the continent through a single, low-cost, and risk-controlled payment clearing and settlement system.” He also used his speech to extol the Akufo-Addo administration’s banking sector and digitization policies. He said: Concurrently, digitization has also become one of the most consequential policies of the Nana Akufo-Addo government. When the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced many economies into partial and total lockdowns, it reinforced the need to pursue digitization.