Ghana has cemented its position as one of Africa’s most advanced jurisdictions in digital asset regulation, with the Deputy Director-General of Operations at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mensah Thompson, telling delegates at the 3i Africa Summit in Accra that the country’s Virtual Asset Act, 2025, Act 1154 is already moving from legislation into active implementation.
The law, approved by the President on December 24, 2025, formally established the regulatory framework for virtual assets in Ghana. Thompson described it as one of the most consequential legal instruments introduced into the country’s financial industry. He noted that while South Africa and Kenya were first and second respectively in establishing such frameworks on the continent, Ghana has moved faster on implementation, having already launched a virtual asset sandbox programme that allows digital asset operators to test offerings under regulatory supervision.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission has already accepted a number of businesses into the programme and released sandbox guidelines,” Thompson said.
The sandbox is designed to give regulators real-time visibility into market activity, help identify emerging risks and generate the operational data needed to set compliance standards for exchanges, trading platforms, custody services and virtual asset management firms.
One of the more distinctive features of Ghana’s approach is its activity-based licensing structure. Rather than issuing a single cryptocurrency licence, the framework requires firms to obtain authorisation specific to the services they provide. The SEC oversees cryptocurrency exchanges, trading platforms and tokenised assets backed by commodities or real-world assets, while the Bank of Ghana (BoG) regulates wallet services, payment systems and fiat-backed stablecoins.
To prevent regulatory gaps at the intersection of these two domains, the law establishes a joint Virtual Assets Committee co-chaired by the BoG and the SEC. The committee coordinates oversight, closes potential loopholes and ensures that new developments within the virtual asset ecosystem are brought under appropriate monitoring as they emerge.
Thompson framed the architecture as a deliberate balance between enabling innovation and protecting consumers, giving fintech firms room to build new products while maintaining the risk management guardrails necessary for market stability.
