Ghana's parliament approved the legalization of cryptocurrency, a move to address central bank concerns about the widening and unregulated use of the alternative asset in the West African country.
Passage of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill will facilitate the licensing of crypto platforms and supervising activity, Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama said at the weekend in the capital, Accra.
The central bank is seeking to improve crypto transparency and regulation following reports that about 3 million Ghanaians, or 17% of the adult population, deal in the virtual currency. That has implications for management of the cedi, the official currency.
The law will ensure that “emerging activity is brought within clear, accountable, and well-governed boundaries,” Asiama said. Regulatory oversight will “lower costs for banks, improve customer experience, support small and medium-sized enterprises and traders.”
Crypto transactions in Ghana in the year through June 2024 amounted to $3 billion, according to estimates by Web3 Africa Group, an Accra-based company planning to set up crypto exchanges in Africa. Nigeria traded $59 billion in the same period, almost half of sub-Saharan Africa's volume of $125 billion.
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