The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has partnered with Munich-based global security technology group Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to pilot e-cedi, the African country’s planned central bank digital currency, in September.

The digital Cedi, or 'e-Cedi', is intended to complement and serve as a digital alternative to physical cash and facilitate payments without a bank account, contract, or smartphone.

First Deputy Governor of BoG, Maxwell Opoku-Afari, confirmed the plan and claimed that once completed and if successful, Ghana would be the first in Sub-Saharan Africa to do so.

BoG is understood to have had engaged several prospective solution provider partners since 2019 before opting to partner with G+D.

G+D says it was selected as the solution provider partner of choice for the development and test of the CBDC.

The company cites it has more than 160 years of experience in the payment landscape including running scaled systems and offering products like banknotes, smart cards, payment cards, wearables, ID systems, security technologies.

A spokesperson for the company said, “G+D has been working in the field of retail CBDC for several years, and has shaped the thinking surrounding CBDC in specific areas. G+D has advised numerous central banks worldwide on CBDC, conducted user surveys, and executed CBDC projects together with central banks on four different continents. Beside the Pilot project with Bank of Ghana that was publicly announced, it is also public knowledge that Bank of Thailand chose G+D to develop a retail CBDC prototype.”

G+D would not disclose any details about further CBDC projects they are working on in parts of Africa due to confidentiality agreements.

According to the Bank for International Settlement, over 85% of central banks are now exploring issuing their own CBDCs which are somewhat a digital version and represent the equivalent of their respective countries’ fiat currencies.