⚠️ HRF CBDC ⛓️🪙 alert from HRF for Ghana (27-FEB-2024)

🗝️ℹ️ (Key Information)

CBDC Status: Pilot

CBDC Launch: n/a

CBDC Model: n/a

CBDC Issued: n/a

Inflation Rate: 31.26%

One-Sentence Summary:

The launch of Ghana's much-anticipated Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), e-Cedi, remains uncertain amidst economic instability, raising concerns around freedom of expression and the potential for misuse in corruption.

✅ 🇬🇭 The Bank of Ghana completed its pilot and is planning to launch its CBDC, e-Cedi, but the timeline remains unclear due to economic instability.

✅ Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, advocated for digital currencies to enhance trade in Ghana and Africa at large, during the 2021 Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference.

✅ The Bank of Ghana signed an agreement with Giesecke+Devrient for a retail CBDC pilot in 2021, addressing the rise of cryptocurrency, digitizing the economy, fostering financial inclusion, and looking ahead at future regulatory efforts.

✅ Initially planned for 2022, the CBDC launch delayed due to high inflation, as explained by Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

✅ By 2023, despite completing the pilot, the launch saw further postponements owing to ongoing economic instability.

✅ In 2024, Bawumia revisits the CBDC plans, proposing it as a tool to fight corruption, enhance transparency, aid tax collection, and prevent money laundering.

✅ 🇬🇭 Despite a high rating of 80/100 in Freedom House’s report, concerns arise about freedom of expression and corruption in Ghana, which could be further complicated by the implementation of a CBDC.

✅ Increased attacks on journalists in 2022 highlights potential misuse of a CBDC to undermine the opposition by freezing and controlling activists' and rivals' finances.

✅ Reportedly $346 million of poorly managed funds due to corruption in 2022, raises questions about surveillance, control, and other risks of CBDCs.

#HumanRights #FreedomOfExpression #EconomicStability #CentralBankDigitalCurrency #Ghana #eCedi

How will Ghana's e-Cedi balance its intent for improved transparency and efficiency with the potential risk of exacerbating corruption, impinging freedom of expression, and affecting economic stability? Share your thoughts.

Disclaimer: This is an AI-generated summary of the original text from HRF, forigve fuck-ups plox. If you find it useful, ⚡ the Tracker Bot because the AI and Cloud bits are not free to run.

Source of data: https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home (npub1zhqcda52mrvcc0vkwegwsp5xtpk6l6x5kqx85f06tu9lw5h6xx0scch0dw)

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