Tokenising government securities could attract more foreign investors to Ghana – WeWire CEO

The Chief Executive Officer of WeWire, Ebenezer Ghanney, says tokenising Ghana’s government securities could make it easier for international investors to access the domestic market and expand the government’s sources of funding. He believes issuing digital tokens linked to government bonds and Treasury instruments could reduce some of the traditional barriers that make it difficult for foreign investors to participate in Ghana’s financial market.

Speaking at the Africa Virtual Assets Summit (AVSA) in Accra, Mr Ghanney identified government securities as among the financial products that could be relatively easy to tokenise because existing market structures and custody arrangements are already in place. “Government securities are easier because the product doesn’t require heavy lifting like gold.

With gold, we need to make sure that we have the custody sorted out,” he said. He explained that tokenisation could allow investors in countries such as China and the United States to purchase Ghanaian government securities through digital platforms without necessarily going through some of the conventional processes for accessing the local market.

According to him, the approach could widen the pool of investors available to the government and create additional opportunities for raising capital. Regulation key to building confidence Mr Ghanney stressed that regulatory oversight would be essential to building public confidence in tokenised financial products. He said WeWire’s participation in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory sandbox was helping the company prepare its products for a wider public launch.

The regulatory sandbox allows selected businesses to test innovative financial products under regulatory supervision. He said the process was important to ensuring that digital asset products were developed within an appropriate regulatory framework before being made available to a wider market.