Bank of Ghana to foster financial inclusion through CBDC project

cointelegraph.com:

As more countries make progress in terms of developing and implementing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Ghana’s central bank aims to keep up and complete its research on CBDCs with the goal of financial inclusion according to Kwame Oppong, the head of fintech and innovation at the Bank of Ghana.

In an interview with Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw at the Africa Money & DeFi Summit, Oppong laid out the reason behind the West African country’s venture into CBDCs. According to the government official, their main goal at the moment is to finish testing and eventually give their citizens the opportunity to use a "decent form of payment." He explained that:

The official said that in the offline pilots of their "E-Cedi," Ghana's CBDC at a town called Sefwi Asafo, participants were able to buy products and services from merchants in all kinds of places without any internet connectivity. Oppong believes that another benefit of a CBDC is having the data generated by the participants. The fintech executive explained that this data can help people become eligible for loans if they provide the information to banks.

Oppong also highlighted the potential cost savings if a CBDC is implemented in the country. He said that when CBDCs are implemented, there is a lot of potential in terms of cost reduction because of its instant settlement feature. 

Despite the potential benefits of CBDC, the central bank official reiterated that the world is still at the stage where various entities are trying to determine its pros and cons. “I think as a society, we need to determine whether it's useful for us or not,” he said.

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