Ghana’s central bank plans to introduce crypto regulations by the end of 2025 after advancing a related bill to the parliament.

During an appearance at the International Monetary Fund’s meetings in Washington on Thursday, Bank of Ghana’s governor, Johnson Asiama, said that the regulators had been working on a draft over the past four months.

“That bill is on its way to parliament, hopefully before the end of December, we should be able to regulate cryptocurrencies in Ghana,” he said, adding that the legislation will also serve as the foundation for building out the necessary oversight tools and institutional capacity to monitor crypto flows effectively.

“We are developing the expertise, we are developing the manpower. We are putting together a new department that will help us. It is an important area. We can no longer ignore it, and we’re trying very hard to be able to regulate that.”

Ghana’s central bank first introduced draft guidelines for cryptocurrencies back in 2024 after it witnessed a surge in demand. The regulations were originally set to be introduced in September this year.

Ghana, like other South African nations, has confronted economic challenges, pushing residents towards alternative assets such as Bitcoin as a shield against inflation. As detailed by the bank at the time, the growth has been spurred by a tech-savvy population, widespread internet access, and the rise of VASPs. 

Recent estimates suggest that over 3 million people in Ghana have engaged with cryptocurrencies in some form, which has prompted the central bank to step in.

“As policymakers, what we have to do is to try to have some control so as to prevent abuse of the system,” Asiama said. The central bank has also launched a digital sandbox in this regard to allow select crypto firms to experiment with crypto integration under regulatory oversight.

Earlier this year, Asiama told Bloomberg that Ghana was “late in the game” and it was weighing on the country’s native currency, the Ghanaian Cedi, as locals had started to switch to crypto for transactional needs.

African nations turn to crypto

If Ghana manages to finalize its crypto framework, it would be joining a quickly growing list of African nations that have formalized similar measures.

Kenya, for instance, passed the landmark Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill, 2025, on Oct. 13, introducing licensing, consumer protections, and a framework for exchanges, brokers, wallet operators, and token issuers. 

Nigeria started taxing crypto transactions earlier this year and passed the Investments and Securities Act 2024 in April, which classifies cryptocurrencies as securities 

Meanwhile, Namibia, located on the southwestern coast of Africa, granted the first set of provisional licenses to two crypto exchanges in January, under its Virtual Assets Act, which was passed in July of 2023.