Ghana will begin regulating cryptocurrency before the end of this year, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Johnson Asiama, has revealed.
According to him, a new bill to govern virtual assets has already been drafted with support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He noted that the bill will be laid before Parliament for consideration.
He disclosed this while speaking in Washington DC at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings.
In his remarks, the Governor stated that the move follows growing evidence of cryptocurrency use in the country, particularly in the remittance and informal exchange markets.
“Crypto is one area. We always knew that the phenomenon was there. But as you know, as some people say, crypto is like the air we breathe. It’s around us. It’s used around us,” he said.
“If you don’t engage in it, you don’t know it’s going on.”
He added that the BoG discovered the scale of crypto activity when remittance inflows through the banking system suddenly declined after the appreciation of the cedi earlier this year.
He stated that Ghanaians in the diaspora were getting lower returns in local currency terms, prompting a shift to alternative digital channels.
“We saw the phenomenon at play when remittances suddenly reduced; apparently, the local currency had appreciated. And so therefore the diaspora that was sending the money, some of them, were getting lesser amounts in local currency terms,” he said.
“And so we saw a diversion by way of the channels of transmission. It was no longer going through the banks.”
“What we observed was that some of the parallel market dealers through which these were coming through indicated to us that they were using stable coins and what have you,” he said.
“And so suddenly there was that active use of virtual assets, you know, to terminate even remittance inflows. So it confirmed our sense that it was an important area.”
He continued, “We could not leave it just as that. We have to step up and be able to regulate and monitor these,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of work in the past four months to put together the regulatory environment, and I must thank the IMF again. They’ve helped us to put together a new bill to regulate virtual assets.”
He was optimistic that the bill would take effect by December after consideration by Parliament.
“That bill is on its way to Parliament as I speak, and so hopefully before the end of December, we should be able to regulate cryptos in Ghana,” he said.
He then warned that legislation was not enough, hence the central bank is currently building the necessary institutional capacity to monitor crypto-related flows and enforce compliance once the new law is passed.
“But I must say that passing a law is just one step in this process,” he said. “Going down the road, the ability to monitor those flows will be key. Therefore, we are developing the expertise and we are developing the manpower. We are putting together a new department that will help us to regulate that area.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
