Cocoa beans at a warehouse in the village of Atroni, near Sunyani, Ghana April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Ange Aboa Ghana’s plans to introduce a central bank digital currency can help the country climb the cocoa-processing value chain, Ferenc Szelenyi – managing director for Middle East and Africa at Giesecke+Devrient – tells The Africa Report.
On August 11, the Bank of Ghana said it is partnering with German payment-services provider Giesecke+Devrient to pilot Africa’s first general-purpose central-bank digital currency . The ‘e-cedi’ is intended to complement rather than replace physical cash.
Ghana accounts for 20% of the $9b global cocoa bean market. About 80% of the country’s exported cocoa is sold in raw form to be processed elsewhere, meaning that Ghana takes only a small slice of the value generated by the $150bn global chocolate industry. In June, the country’s cocoa board signed an agreement with Swiss equipment and systems business Bühler to increase local cocoa processing capacity.
