According to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, an e-cedi pilot project has begun in Sefwi Asafo in the Western North Region.
The Governor stated that the purpose of this is to evaluate the viability of an offline version of the central bank’s digital money in a town with no connectivity.
He made the announcement on Monday, May 30, 2022, at the Ghana CEO Summit.
“In keeping with the Bank’s commitment to the digitization of the sector, the e-Cedi project is progressing steadily. Since financial inclusion is one of the objectives for embarking on the CBDC pilot, the Bank has deemed it necessary to test an offline version of the e-Cedi that can be used for consecutive payments between individuals and merchants, where there is no connectivity infrastructure, just like cash.”
“Digitizing the offline transactions of rural and frontier households holds the key to creating the necessary market linkages that could result in access to finance in the future. So far, the usage and uptake of the offline version of the e-Cedi are being piloted in a small town called Sefwi Asafo in the Western North region.”
According to Dr. Addison, people have been chosen to utilize the e-cedi for their daily transactions.
According to him, data from the piloting will be utilized to make important decisions during the implementation of the E-Cedi’s.
“Select users in that community have been using the e-Cedi for daily purchases such as food, grocery, and drinks. The Bank will continue to work with these users to obtain the critical usage data that will inform the decision about the e-Cedi’s future after the pilot. These are clearly landmark events in providing digital leadership with the payment systems, to lead to a digitized economy in the near future.”
The governor of the central bank utilized the occasion to convey his concern about developments in global capital markets, emphasizing that foreign exchange pressures, along with low forex liquidity, have contributed to severe currency depreciation.
source: omanfm1071.com
