Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC Ghana) has begun efforts toward regulating digital/crypto assets in order to minimize potential harm to investors.
According to local reports, the SEC Director-General, Daniel Ogbamey-Tetteh, made these comments at the 2023 Ghana Capital Market Conference commemorating the regulator’s 25th anniversary.
“We are in the era of digital assets – and taking a cue from IOSCO who are encouraging its members to incorporate frameworks in their respective regulations to oversee the activities of digital/crypto assets in order to minimise potential harm to investors, we have commissioned a task force to assist the Commission acquire requisite capacity in that space,” he said.
The SEC has also been taking steps to build on its institutional capacity and give confidence to capital and asset owners about the fairness, transparency, efficiency, and resilience of the capital market in Ghana.
“We are investing in developing the human capital of SEC as well as implementing a digitalisation programme. We have started implementing a risk-based supervision framework as we seek to migrate from the compliance-based supervision mode,” said the Director-General.
“Our pursuit of Reg-Tech and Sup-Tech solutions aims to balance a supportive stance toward financial innovation while upholding the financial market’s integrity and stability.”
However, there is a sticking point between regulators and operators over the regulation, with the decentralized nature of a large chunk of assets proving to be the sticking point despite its growing popularity.
Ghana is seeking to join a slew of countries like South Africa, which was the first country to release regulations for virtual assets service providers.
Namibia’s parliament in June 2023 passed a bill to legalize and establish regulations for virtual assets, including cryptocurrency.
In Kenya, the parliament has asked the Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK) to prepare the first draft of what might become the Virtual Asset Service Provider’s bill.
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