The Bank of Ghana (BoG) will begin a pilot of the digital cedi in a sandbox environment in September, the First Deputy Governor of the BoG, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, has said.

Speaking after the opening session of a two-day training for Journalists for Business Advocacy on Understanding Monetary Policy in a Post-Pandemic Era, the First Deputy Governor said the digital cedi was important to deepening digital transactions in the economy.

“Digital Currency is part of the central bank acknowledging the need for digital payment and digital delivery of financial services. By this, the Bank of Ghana will provide a platform on which we can add more value to digital transactions,” Dr Opoku-Afari said.

“We have to take out time to design it with all the security features and so have started it in a pilot phase through what we call a sand-box to learn lessons before we open it up to the general public,'' he added.

He said the Central Bank’s approval for the use of the digital currency by the population would depend on the outcome of the pilot.

“The central bank's digital currency is FIAT money, it is cash on its own so that the financial institution like the banks and Fintechs will be able to create value addition on the digital cash,'' he added.