 |
Adnan Adams Mohammed
Ghana is in the speeding up process to launch a digital currency as a proactive measure to meet up with the digital currency revolution in the world.
Ghana’s version of the digital currency to be named ‘E-Cedi’ is set to go through a three-phase process of development and authentication before it will be release into the system.
The ‘E-Cedi’ development which is near the final phase, where it will be piloted is to determine whether the digital currency will be feasible or not before it goes into circulation.
“The Bank of Ghana was one of the first African Central Banks to declare that we were working on a digital currency looking at the concept of an E-Cedi,” Dr Ernest Addison disclosed at a news conference in Accra, last week.
“Yes, we are quite advanced in that process. As you know, with these types of things, you have to go at it in phases and the first phase was really on the design of the electronic money and the team that has gone quite far in the design phase, they are looking at the implementation phase.
“After the implementation phase, we have a pilot phase where a few people would be able to use the digital cedi on the mobile applications and other applications that are currently running.
“From that pilot, we will be able to determine whether this is feasible and what sort of things needed to make it work effectively.”
It is anticipated that ‘E-cedi’ will be less volatile than Bitcoin.
Activities of cryptocurrencies are currently not regulated because of their volatility.
“You have seen the sharp changes in the valuations of some of these coins, the Bitcoin large, large swings in the value of the currency. The basic function of currency is for them to be used effectively as a medium of exchange or even as a unit of account, so when you have a currency whose value is so unstable, you really cannot use it effectively to meet any of the standard functions of money.
“This is why, I think there is a lot more emphasis on looking at digital money which is backed by the state, backed by the central banks. These private forms of money really are not able to perform the functions of money effectively”.
In April this year, China became the first major economy to introduce a digital currency, the digital yuan.
China’s version of a digital currency is controlled by its central bank, which issues the electronic money.
It is expected to give China’s government vast new tools to monitor both its economy and its people as it negates one of bitcoin’s major draws: anonymity for the user.
It is also seen as an attempt to replace cryptocurrencies as it may be used internationally.
