Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre says the use of virtual markets and virtual currencies such as bitcoin and kitiwa is a severe risk to the country’s security .
The assessment is based on available international records that show insurgencies have been funded from Ghana .
Saddled with combating money laundering and terrorist financing, the centre is now working to make Ghana the first country in West Africa to publish its national risk assessment. Africa moves to cashless economy
The country will also undergo the second phase of a regional mutual evaluation against money laundering in its readiness to fight the crime, added the centre’s CEO, Samuel Essel.
The assessment, designed in September 2014 to prevent money laundering and combat terrorist financing, is in line with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for countries to identify, assess, and understand money laundering and combat terrorist financing risks within their jurisdiction and then take action and apply resources to mitigate them.
More African countries are moving towards a cashless economy and more Africans are using BitcoinCT r: 8 particularly for its ease of use and transparency features.
Nethertheless, official statements that tie various electronic payment platforms including bitcoin to money laundering and terrorism financing create doubts in the larger population that is yet to understand the disruptive tendency of the digital currency . Governments plan regulation
The situation has been worsened by the several plans mentioned by African governments to regulate bitcoin use across the region through relevant institutions with none having achieved anything concrete yet.Rather, lingering talks of impending policies have become another factor that has added to the low level of public awareness about bitcoin to aid lack of interest in Africa’s growing fintech sector. In a position paper on virtual currencies by the South African Reserve Bank, it described Bitcoin, LiteCoin and […]
