Ghana’s Crypto Regulation Push Chases USD 3 B Market It Can’t Yet Monitor

Ghana is racing to establish formal cryptocurrency regulations by the end of December, a move that highlights a broader scramble across Africa to control a booming digital asset market that is operating largely in a regulatory vacuum. The push, however, is fraught with something of a paradox as the central bank moves ahead with building a legal framework for a multi-billion dollar industry before it has built the team to enforce it .

The West African nation’s central bank governor, Johnson Asiama, confirmed the timeline on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s meetings in Washington, stating that a bill is on its way to parliament.

He acknowledged that the Bank of Ghana is “late in the game” and is now urgently “developing the expertise” and forming a new department to oversee the sector. This regulatory void exists in a market of significant scale; between July 2023 and June 2024, Ghanaians traded over USD 3 B in cryptocurrency, with an estimated 3 million people, or nearly 9% of the population, participating.

The drive for regulation in Ghana is part of a wider continental trend, creating a complex and competitive landscape for digital assets. Kenya’s parliament recently passed its own Virtual Asset Service Providers bill, which now awaits the president’s signature to become law.

Elsewhere, South Africa has emerged as a regional leader, having already licensed dozens of crypto asset service providers and is now implementing advanced rules like the “Travel Rule” for anti-money laundering purposes, with its market revenue projected to hit USD 373.5 M this year.

Nigeria, a regional giant, processed a colossal USD 59 B in crypto volume in a recent one-year period with a new formal tax framework set to take effect next year, underscoring the immense pressure on other African nations to formalise their own frameworks or risk being left behind.

The urgency for Ghana is multifaceted. With the local cedi experiencing volatility, authorities are keen to bring cryptocurrency flows—which currently occur outside traditional banking oversight—under regulatory purview to better manage monetary policy. The central bank is also running a digital sandbox, allowing select companies to experiment with crypto services under supervision. Yet, the gap between ambition and administrative reality is a significant challenge.

The department responsible for oversight has not yet been staffed, raising questions about the effectiveness of enforcement once the law is passed. As one notable financial advisor in the region summed it up earlier: “the digital train has left the station,” and inaction risks “loss of tax revenue, exposure to illicit capital flows, stifled innovation and an unregulated youth-led digital economy outside state control”.