Bank of Ghana (BOG), in collaboration with EMTECH Solutions has launched an event dubbed “eCedi hackathon” to provide opportunities for FinTechs, developers to design innovative solutions that would explore various use cases of a central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
In a statement signed by Sandra Thompson, secretary to the Director, FinTech and Innovation Office of the Bank of Ghana said the programme which was launched yesterday will run for a 12-week period during which innovators will brainstorm and come up with solutions to address financial inclusion challenges in Ghana.
A hackathon is a time-bound, collaborative, and intensive event where individuals or teams come together to work on creative and innovative projects, typically related to technology, software development, or problem solving.
It stated that the event is also expected to provide a platform for developers, innovators, and blockchain enthusiasts to showcase their creativity by exploring the many possibilities of CBDC technology and contribute to the future of Ghana’s digital financial ecosystem.
“The eCedi challenge will encourage local developers to showcase their creativity by collaborating with peers to generate innovative solutions towards solving financial inclusion problems based on the eCedi, facilitate CBDC knowledge sharing among the Bank of Ghana, banks and payment service providers,” it stated.
It will also provide an opportunity for networking and collaboration with other organizations and software developers working in the CBDC domain.
It said the event will also culminate in a conference during which solutions judged to be impressive will be recognized in an award ceremony.
It further indicated that the project which is also part of the eCedi research project will also presents an opportunity for the Bank to explore emerging technologies, foster creativity and contribute to the advancement of eCedi development.
“The proposed innovations are expected to leverage eCedi tokens and APIs to prototype solutions or develop tools that address the following use cases: Use of eCedi in Merchants transactions (C2B), use of eCedi for government payments (G2P, P2G) and make the eCedi Interoperable,” it said.
Others include the use of eCedi in Agriculture and Trade (C2B, B2B), Data Privacy while holding or transacting with eCedi, use eCedi for inbound remittance, combating the use of eCedi for illicit transactions, provide KYC models solutions for eCedi, and possible models for cross-border payments and transactions.
According to BOG, applications will be opened from 6th October 2023 and therefore invites interested individuals and teams to join the programme as they work to investigate new ideas of making eCedi relevant in diverse use cases.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah