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E-cedi will quicken drive towards a cash-lite economy – Zeepay MD

The Managing Director of Zeepay, Andrews Takyi-Appiah has lauded government’s efforts at introducing the Central Bank’s Digital Currency also known as the E-cedi into the economy.

According to him, the move will quicken government’s drive towards a cash-lite economy and aid to further boost the country’s capital market. In an interview with Citi Business News on the side-lines of the company’s 2020 annual general meeting, Andrew Takyi-Appiah said this would make the capital market more fluid and also bring a lot of innovation in the market.

“The introduction of the e cedi is a good thing, as they are just introducing a digital element of the existing currency which will be very good for the economy. It will also introduce digital transactions into the country’s capital market and automatically turn the market to a 24-hour platform where investors could trade at any time of the day,” he said.

The BoG recently announced that it was in advanced stages of introducing a digital currency. It has recently joined forces with Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to pilot a general-purpose Central Bank Digital Currency (retail CBDC) in Ghana.

The digital Cedi, or ‘e-Cedi’, is intended to complement and serve as a digital alternative to physical cash, thus driving the Ghanaian cashlite agenda through promotion of diverse digital payments, while ensuring a secure and robust payment infrastructure in Ghana.

It also aims to facilitate payments without a bank account, contact, or smartphone, by so doing boosting the use of digital services and financial inclusion amongst all demographic groups 2020 Performance

Despite the negative effects of COVID-19 on businesses globally, Zeepay, recorded a 146% rise in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in 2020. This comes amid predictions of a decline in remittance inflows to Africa.