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The country has successfully executed its first cross-border trade transaction using digital credentials, the eCedi central bank digital currency (CBDC) and the Singapore stablecoin.
The landmark pilot is part of the DESFT (Digital Economy Semi-Fungible Token) project, a collaborative initiative between the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Mr. Kwame Oppong, Director of the Financial Technology and Innovation Office of the Bank of Ghana, pointed out at the launch ceremony of the just concluded 3i Africa Summit that this milestone is an important step forward for Ghana’s digital economy.
“The DESFT project aims to support African SMEs in participating in international trade by removing the significant barriers they face, such as building trust with overseas trading partners, and gaining support in cross-border payments and supply chain finance,” he said.
The first phase of the project focused on developing a trusted credential system that enables SMEs to convert critical information such as licenses and trade records into verifiable digital credentials on a secure distributed ledger. The second phase successfully executed a live cross-border transaction between Ghana and Singapore using the DESFT solution, Universal Trusted Credentials (UTC), Singapore Stablecoin (xSGD) and Ghana’s eCedi CBDC.
“The live transaction further demonstrates the feasibility of using eCedi, Ghana’s proposed domestic retail CBDC platform, in cross-border transactions,” Mr. Oppong explained. “It confirms the potential of the eCedi system to interoperate with various cross-border credential and payment platforms in the future.”
Ghana’s upcoming retail CBDC, eCedi, is expected to significantly enhance the country’s payment ecosystem, promote inclusive growth and innovation, while improving consumer experience. Through interoperability with the DESFT system and verifiable credentials through UTC, eCedi enables Ghanaian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to participate in international trade in a cost-effective manner, thereby revolutionizing cross-border trade.
“We believe that the new generation of financial technology offers innovative approaches to these challenges,” said Mr. Oppong.
“After nearly a year and two phases of development, we have built a reliable information exchange solution based on the UTC standard and semi-fungible token technology. In addition, we have rigorously tested a cross-border payment solution based on the Purpose-Bound Money (PBM) principle and conducted real trade experiments that fully met our intended goals,” he added.
While the DESFT project marks a significant milestone, Oppong stressed that the initiative is still a work in progress, with the next phase focusing on automating the digital certificate process, programmable payments across multiple digital currencies, and supporting supply chain finance.
The successful pilot comes as Ghana prepares to launch the long-awaited electronic cedi (eCedi), a system that was initially planned for 2026 but was delayed due to economic disruption caused by the 2022 events.
In a recent statement, the Bank of Ghana assured the public that work on the rollout of eCedi is ongoing, with the central bank adopting a CBDC model based on retail tokens that will be stored locally on various devices, replicating the traditional attributes of physical cash while incorporating additional functionalities.
source: thebftonline.com
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