Ghana is taking a striking step. The financial markets regulator has selected eleven companies for a pilot program on crypto trading. The pilot must show within twelve months how crypto can be safely integrated into the financial system.
That’s interesting because about three million Ghanaians already use digital assets. That is 17% of the adult population.
Five exchanges and six tokenization projects
The eleven selected companies are divided into two groups. Five focus on running crypto exchanges: Hyro Exchange, Hanypay, HSB Global, Koinkoin and WhiteBit.
The other six are working on tokenization. Vaulta, XChain and Bsystem focus on splitting traditional assets into digital tokens to make them easier to trade. Africoin wants to digitize gold through tokens. Blu Penguin is building tokenized payment systems. And GoldBod will be the custodian of gold-backed securities.
After six months, regulators evaluate which companies are ready for a full license.
Three million users force the government to take action
The test does not come out of nowhere. Crypto is growing faster in Ghana than regulations can keep up with. With three million users in an adult population of about eighteen million, adoption is remarkably high.
That entails risks. Large-scale use of crypto could impact the management of the national currency and even economic statistics. In December, parliament therefore passed a new law that lays the foundation for crypto regulation. Central bank president Johnson Asiama emphasized that new financial technologies must operate within clear frameworks.
What this means more broadly
Ghana is not the only African country trying to regulate rather than ban crypto. The continent has a young population, limited access to traditional banking and high inflation in several countries. That makes crypto attractive as an alternative.
Ghana’s approach to a controlled pilot program with a path to full licensing can serve as an example for other countries in the region. If the pilot is successful, eleven companies will be given the green light to serve a market of three million users within a regulated framework.
Source: https://newsbit.nl/ghana-test-crypto-handel-met-11-bedrijven-in-nieuw-experiment/
