By Francis Ntow
Washington DC (USA), April 28, GNA – Ghana will have a regulatory framework to guide cryptocurrency trading, effective September 2025, says Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, Governor, Bank of Ghana (BoG).
According to the Central Bank, digital assets, including cryptocurrency, are worth some US$100 in the country, but remained largely unregulated, indicating the Bank’s resolve to act swiftly towards the regulations.
“We have a unit in place that is working towards it. We need to pass the necessary legislation, latest by the end of September, and we will keep you [the public] aware when we are ready to go,” Dr Asiama said.
Dr Asiama said this in a media engagement on the sidelines of the just ended 2025 spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG), in Washington DC, USA.
The framework is to provide licensing to companies, ensure tax compliance and transactional transparency to platforms operating in the country’s digital finance space, and ensure consumer protection.
He noted that some companies were operating in Ghana without any proper regulatory oversight, a situation that deprived the country of taxes and exposed customers to wrongdoings in cryptocurrency trading.
“For example, my information is that Binance has an office in Accra, but nobody is talking to them, nobody is picking any data, [and] they are not paying any taxes. Therefore, we are going to fast,” the Governor said.
“We are working with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and we will put the regulatory framework in place. That way, we bring visibility to what is going on. It’s safer that way [and] more efficient.”
With this development, Ghana would join Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and other African countries that have issued directives on the use, purchase, and transaction of cryptocurrencies.
It would be a key milestone in meeting the September 2025 deadline of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, for member States, including Ghana to develop cryptocurreny oversight legislation.
Prior to this development, the Central Bank and SEC had issued several public notices clarifying that digital assets were neither recognised as legal tender nor regulated under Ghanaian law.
However, the Bank, in August 2024, introduced a draft regulation for digital assets, including cryptocurrency, recognising their increased adoption for cross-border payments, crowdfunding, and remittances.
GNA
ABD