A pilot project of the e-cedi has begun in Sefwi Asafo in the Western North Region according to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

The Governor noted that this is to test the viability of an offline version of the central bank’s digital currency in a community where there is no connectivity.
He made this disclosure at the Ghana CEO Summit on Monday, May 30, 2022.

“In keeping with the Bank’s commitment to 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.”

Dr Addison noted that people have been selected to use the e-cedi for their daily transactions.

According to him, data from the piloting will be used for critical decisions during the rollout of the E-Cedi.

“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 used the occasion to express concerns about developments in the global capital markets, stressing that foreign exchange pressures coupled with tight forex liquidity have contributed to significant currency depreciation.

By:Isaac Clottey