It is to provide opportunities for FinTechs, developers and innovators to design innovative solutions that explore various use cases of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

A statement issued in Accra said the event dubbed, “eCedi Hackathon,” is an innovation challenge set to run for a 12-week period, during which innovators would brainstorm to come up with solutions to address financial inclusion challenges in Ghana.

It said the event provided a platform for developers, innovators, and blockchain enthusiasts to showcase their creativity by exploring the many possibilities of CBDC technology and contribute to the future of Ghana’s digital financial ecosystem.

The statement said the event would culminate in a conference during which solutions judged to be impressive would be recognized in an award ceremony.

A hackathon is a time-bound, collaborative, and intensive event where individuals or teams come together to work on creative and innovative projects, typically related to technology, software development, or problem solving.

It said the event typically would bring together programmers, designers, engineers, and other professionals often with diverse backgrounds and skills to brainstorm ideas and create working prototypes or software applications.

The project is part of the eCedi research project and presents an opportunity for the Bank to explore emerging technologies, foster creativity and contribute to the advancement of eCedi development.

The objectives of the eCedi Innovation Challenge include the following encouraging local developers to showcase their creativity by collaborating with peers to generate innovative solutions towards solving financial inclusion problems based on the eCedi.

It will also facilitate CBDC knowledge sharing among the Bank of Ghana, banks, and payment service providers; and provide an opportunity for networking and collaboration with other organizations and software developers working in the CBDC domain.

The statement said the proposed innovations were expected to leverage eCedi tokens and APIs to prototype solutions or develop tools that address the following use cases.

It will use eCedi in Merchants transactions (C2B), use of eCedi for government payments (G2P, P2G), use of eCedi in Agriculture and Trade (C2B, B2B) and data Privacy while holding or transacting with eCedi.

It will also use eCedi for inbound remittance, combatting the use of eCedi for illicit transactions, make the eCedi Interoperable and use the Know Your Customer models solutions for eCedi.

“Possible models for cross-border payments and transactions Registration for the eCedi Innovation Challenge has been announced today, October 3, 2023, and applications will be open on October 6, 2023,” it added.