The Bank of Ghana is developing a dedicated Stablecoin Directive to regulate stablecoin activities in the country, Governor Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama has announced.
Delivering a goodwill message at the Africa Virtual Assets Summit (AVAS) 2026 in Accra, Dr. Asiama said stablecoins are a priority within Ghana’s emerging virtual assets framework.
The Summit is on the theme: “Tokenisation: Africa’s Pathway to a Trusted, Inclusive and Innovative Digital Asset Ecosystem” and “Virtual Assets and the Future of Ghana’s Financial System: Innovation, Stability and Trust.”
Dr. Asiama said Ghana has already proven it can adopt financial technology at scale, disclosing that in August 2026 alone, mobile money platforms processed over one billion transactions worth approximately GH¢519 billion.
He said the next phase is to leverage virtual assets and tokenisation to address longstanding market imperfections — limited access to capital, high transaction costs, fragmented financial infrastructure and barriers to cross-border payments.
According to him, virtual asset infrastructure could make diaspora remittances faster and cheaper, and support trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), where payments between neighbouring economies remain slow and costly.
On tokenization, he noted that representing ownership of securities, commodities and trade receivables in digital form could allow small exporters to obtain financing earlier and at lower cost, reduce settlement times from days to minutes, and give SMEs new channels for raising capital.
Trust and Cedi Stability
The Governor however cautioned that innovation must not undermine monetary stability and confidence in the Ghana cedi.
He said the growing adoption of foreign-currency denominated stablecoins could have implications for monetary sovereignty, currency substitution, capital flows and the effectiveness of monetary policy.
“Trust is not the opposite of innovation; it is what allows innovation to grow,” Dr. Asiama said, stressing that the central bank’s responsibility for price stability does not diminish with technological change.
He said regulation will not be heavy-handed, but will be based on the nature, scale and complexity of risks, anchored in consumer protection, safeguarding of customer assets and financial integrity.
Regulatory Framework
Dr. Asiama cited the passage of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154) as a major milestone, establishing a dedicated legal framework with coordinated regulation by the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
He said the Bank is working closely with the SEC and the Financial Intelligence Centre to develop the necessary regulatory instruments, while the inauguration of the Virtual Assets Coordinating Committee will enhance cooperation among public institutions.
“Our ambition is a financial system that is more inclusive, more efficient and more resilient: one in which a trader in Kumasi, a cocoa farmer and a young developer in Accra can all benefit from faster, cheaper and safer financial services,” he said.
