The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, has said that the commission will soon come out with its final policy position on trading in cryptocurrencies.
He said the commission was still trying to get a better view of how to approach the whole issue of cryptocurrencies to determine whether to allow it or not.
Until then, he said, SEC’s position in its notice which was issued in 2019 had still not changed.
SEC in that notice warned the public that none of the cryptocurrencies was recognised as currency or legal tender in Ghana.
The platform on which they are traded are also not licensed nor regulated by the SEC. The SEC would like to make it clear that it does not currently regulate these types of products offerings and their accompanying online trading platforms or exchanges.
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Members of the general public who are investing or intend to invest in such currencies or assets may be doing so at their own risk and can in no way be protected under the Securities law regime in Ghana,” the notice pointed out.
At the maiden ‘Capital Market Financial Education Forum’ with the media on June 30, Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh, said “our position on this matter has not changed”.
We haven’t come up with any guidelines regarding cryptocurrencies and it’s not something which is regulated by us. We have plans of getting a better view of how to approach this whole issue to determine whether we are going to allow it in the future.
“So there is some background work being done but currently, we do not regulate it in our market. If you go into it and something happens, you are on your own. When we are ready, we will come out clearly on what we want to do about it but for now, we are not licensing any operator in that space,” he stated.
He said SEC was fully aware of the interest in it and was not oblivious to the trend.
But we want to make sure that we fully have in place the necessary structures if we are going to allow it here,” he said.
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Curbing Ponzi schemes
The Director General also called for support from the media to help curb the increasing rate of Ponzi schemes in the country.
He said the media must throw its weight behind the efforts to intensify public education with the ultimate goal of achieving investor protection.
He challenged journalists to deepen their appreciation of the capital market so as to be better placed to give more accurate reportage of the industry.
Education forum
Rev. Tetteh, said the Capital Market Financial Education Forum was designed for key stakeholders in the Ghanaian capital market.
The first of the series was held on the theme, ‘Understanding the mandate and regulatory toolkit of the SEC’.
He said the forum represented the beginning of many public education programmes to be carried out within the year.
The series will be tailored at key stakeholders including the investing public, market operators and other critical partners,” he said.
Caution to media
The Head of Legal Enforcement at SEC, Caliis Badoo, also cautioned the media against the use of their platforms to advertise investment schemes by non-licensed investment firms in the country.
He bemoaned the increasing rate of media advertisement that proposed illegal investment registration of clients.
He said that was a violation of section 144 of the Securities Industry Act, 2016 (Act 929), which gives SEC some role to play when it comes to advertising or publishing notices to the public through the media.
Section 144 states that if you are not licensed by the SEC, you cannot publish any advert that concerns a product that is supposed to be regulated by SEC. And even if you are licensed by, you are only allowed to advertise on products concerning investments, provided that the advert contents are not misleading,” he explained.
He said adverts that did not comply with these provisions should, therefore, not be allowed in the media space.
