During the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington on Thursday, Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama stated that regulators have been working on a cryptocurrency draft bill for the past four months.
“That bill is on its way to Parliament, and we hope to regulate cryptocurrencies in Ghana before the end of December,” Asiama said, adding that the legislation will lay the groundwork for building oversight tools and institutional capacity to monitor crypto flows effectively.
“We are developing the expertise and manpower, and establishing a new department to support this effort. It is an important area that can no longer be ignored, and we are working hard to regulate it,” he added.
Ghana’s central bank first introduced draft cryptocurrency guidelines in 2024 after seeing a surge in demand, with regulations initially scheduled for September this year. Economic challenges in Ghana, similar to other South African nations, have driven residents toward alternative assets like Bitcoin to hedge against inflation. The growth has been fueled by a tech-savvy population, widespread internet access, and the rise of virtual asset service providers (VASPs).
Recent estimates suggest that over 3 million Ghanaians have engaged with cryptocurrencies, prompting the central bank to act. “As policymakers, we must exert some control to prevent system abuse,” Asiama said. The central bank has also launched a digital sandbox, allowing select crypto firms to experiment with regulated crypto integration.
Earlier this year, Asiama told Bloomberg that Ghana was “late in the game,” with crypto adoption affecting the Ghanaian Cedi as locals increasingly turned to digital currencies for transactions.
If finalized, Ghana would join a growing list of African nations implementing crypto regulations. Kenya recently passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill, 2025, introducing licensing, consumer protections, and a framework for exchanges, brokers, wallet operators, and token issuers. Nigeria began taxing crypto transactions and enacted the Investments and Securities Act 2024, classifying cryptocurrencies as securities. Meanwhile, Namibia granted provisional licenses to two crypto exchanges under its 2023 Virtual Assets Act.
