Ghana CBDC Tracker

CBDC Information

Economic Information

GDP

$72,838,798,788

Population

34,121,985

Government Information

Form of Government

Electoral Democracy

Rule Of Law

4.76/10

Freedom Rankings

Cato and Fraser Human Freedom Index:

7.19/10

Freedom House Index:

8/10

Reporters Without Borders Freedom Index:

6.59/10

Ghana is in the pilot phase. The Bank of Ghana is currently planning the launch of its CBDC (referred to as the eCedi, E-cedi, or e-Cedi), according to reporting in African Markets. However, the launch has been delayed due to economic instability. The new timeline for the launch is currently unclear. At one point, the Bank of Ghana had 2,750 people using a CBDC to make real transactions in their everyday lives. However, that pilot was shut down in 2022 as scheduled after four months of operation.

CBDC History and Development

In 2021, Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana, reportedly said at the Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference that it was time for African governments to embrace digital currencies to enhance trade. However, it was also reported that he warned that African economies need CBDCs, not cryptocurrency. Later that year, the Bank of Ghana announced that it signed an agreement with the company Giesecke+Devrient to pilot a retail CBDC.

In March 2022, the Bank of Ghana published a report covering both the motivations and design principles for a Ghanaian CBDC. Motivations included addressing the rise of cryptocurrency, digitizing the economy, fostering financial inclusion, and anticipating future regulatory efforts. To meet these ends, the Bank of Ghana said that it intended to move forward with a retail CBDC.

The Bank of Ghana briefly took the CBDC public for four months in 2022 when it “successfully piloted both online and offline use cases of the eCedi” with a reported 2,750 people in Accra, Tarkwa, and Sefwi Asafo. The report on the pilot (published in October 2024) said the goal of the trial was to test if the CBDC could be used to digitize payments, strengthen the economy, increase financial inclusion, and address the “emerging risk of unregulated private ‘currencies’ or virtual assets.”

In March 2023, the Bank of Ghana planned to launch its CBDC, but it delayed those plans due to the high inflation experienced at the time. Bank of Ghana governor Ernest Addison said, “That is not the context in which you want to launch a digital currency. So, we had to slow down the process and refocus our efforts on the macro environment, trying to bring inflation down. At a certain point, we will go back to the [CBDC] and decide on the launch date.”

In October 2023, the Bank of Ghana and the company EMTECH announced the “eCedi Hackathon.” Among the goals for the 12-week competition, the Bank of Ghana hoped to learn more about how the CBDC could be used for merchant transactions, government payments, know-your-customer monitoring, and other similar applications. Shortly after the announcement, the Bank of Ghana and EMTECH hosted an information session for people interested in the competition. The session covered the central bank’s goals, criteria for judging, prizes, and other information relevant to the competition. EMTECH shared that Microsoft, the HBAR Foundation, Hedera Hashgraph, Start OA, and Mest were also partners in the competition.

At the conclusion of the eCedi Hackathon, Bank of Ghana governor Ernest Addison gave a speech to congratulate the participants. He said, “It is therefore our belief that the Bank’s CBDC will further push the frontiers of financial inclusiveness in the country,” and that the “Bank of Ghana’s CBDC exploration journey is grounded on several policy imperatives, including financial inclusion, safety and efficiency of payments, and the growing digitalisation of the Ghanaian economy.” The first and second place winners of the eCedi Hackathon walked away with 500,000 cedis ($30,318) and 200,000 cedis ($12,127), respectively.

In 2024, BNN reported that Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of Ghana, had revealed new plans to launch a CBDC. Bawumia said that he envisions the CBDC as a tool to fight corruption, enhance transparency, collect taxes, and prevent money laundering.

In October 2024, the Bank of Ghana issued a press release to celebrate being the winner of the “Innovation in Digital Currency Design for Financial Inclusion” award. The central bank said it won the award because of its “compelling demonstration of the eCedi’s design elements, encompassing governance, accessibility, (online and offline), interoperability, and infrastructure with the potential to promote financial inclusion.”

Human Rights and Civil Liberties Concerns

Ghana earned an 80 out of 100 in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report, but the country does have its challenges. For example, Amnesty International has reported that there have been efforts in Ghana to clamp down on freedom of expression. Elsewhere, there have been reports of significant corruption. The adoption of a CBDC could worsen this experience.

Freedom House and the U.S. Department of State report there was a surge in attacks on journalists in 2022. Unfortunately, all of the cases appear to be direct retaliations to criticism of the government. A CBDC could worsen this situation by giving the government the ability to cut off journalists from spending or receiving money. In other words, it creates the opportunity to cut journalists off from society. Across the world, governments have often turned to freezing and seizing the money of activists, political rivals, and protestors to undermine the opposition. A CBDC would make such initiatives easier by allowing governments to take direct control of each citizen’s finances. Furthermore, by providing a tool to increase surveillance, it puts any confidential informants at risk.

Corruption in Ghana has reportedly led to more than $346 million of financial mismanagement in 2022. The U.S. Department of State wrote that “officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity,” and that corruption “was present in all sectors of government.” The existence of pervasive corruption is a major concern with CBDCs because it calls into question any promises that might be made by the government to limit surveillance, control, or other risks of CBDCs. Furthermore, the existence of corruption calls into question whether CBDC policies might be designed to exert political favoritism through subsidies, price controls, or other targeted restrictions.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.