GSE Outlines Tokenised Securities Strategy as Ghana Tests Digital Investment Models

The Ghana Stock Exchange has outlined a digital strategy covering tokenised issuance and trading, alongside integration with clearing and settlement systems, signalling how emerging technology could reshape the country’s capital market.

Managing Director Abena Amoah outlined the direction at the Africa Virtual Asset Summit (AVAS) 2026 in Accra on Monday, November 2.

She said the Exchange was working with regulators and technology partners, while drawing on international experience, to test applications intended to improve market access, efficiency and investor confidence.

The strategy brings attention to the infrastructure behind digital investments: how assets are issued, how investors trade them and how the resulting transactions are completed.

Tokenisation involves creating digital representations of assets on programmable platforms. These representations can cover financial instruments such as securities, as well as physical assets. A report by the Bank for International Settlements and its Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures explains that such arrangements can connect activities across an asset’s lifecycle.

The country is already examining several applications through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s virtual asset sandbox, a supervised environment for testing services.

The SEC’s August 19 public notice listed 20 participants with specified pilot activities. These included AFRICOIN Ghana Limited for gold tokenisation, GFX Brokers Limited for Treasury bill tokenisation, One Africa Securities Limited for bonds and WeWire Ghana Limited for trade finance.

The Commission said the pilots would provide regulatory evidence to help finalise requirements for activity-specific licensing and registration. The notice describes supervised pilot activities, keeping their status distinct from a general commercial rollout.

For businesses and investors, the potential attraction is a market in which issuing, holding and transferring investments becomes more efficient. However, the BIS report stresses that achieving improvements in safety and efficiency requires sound governance and risk management.

Ms Amoah similarly linked technological change to the Exchange’s continuing responsibility to investors.

“The token may be new, but our obligation to the investor is not,” She stressed.

She also identified artificial intelligence as a possible tool for strengthening market surveillance, supported by human accountability and cybersecurity safeguards.

The regulatory framework will be central to translating these ambitions into functioning markets.

In remarks, the Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama said the effectiveness of Ghana’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), would depend on implementation and enforcement. He identified customer asset protection and financial integrity among the foundations for public confidence.