Ghana has begun implementing a new legal framework for virtual assets after passing legislation aimed at regulating cryptocurrency and related digital financial products, a senior Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official said on Wednesday.

Mensah Thompson, Deputy Director at the SEC, said the Virtual Asset Self-Procurement Act, 2025 (Act 1154), was passed with support from the Bank of Ghana and assented to by the president on Dec. 24, 2025.

He said the law places Ghana among the first three African countries to establish a formal virtual asset regulatory regime, alongside South Africa and Kenya, but argued that Ghana was ahead in implementation.

According to Thompson, regulators have already issued sandbox guidelines and admitted 17 firms into a regulatory sandbox — 11 under the SEC and six under the central bank — allowing selected companies to test crypto-related products under supervision.

“We have commenced our sandbox framework and are working with international service providers to deploy monitoring tools that will give us real-time visibility of market activity,” he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the 3i Africa Summit in Accra.

He said regulators would be able to monitor transactions, set operational limits and take enforcement action where firms breach rules.

Thompson added that data from the sandbox would inform future guidelines covering crypto exchanges, tokenisation, trading platforms, mining and validation activities.

The aim, he said, is to identify risks in the sector and design safeguards to protect investors as Ghana opens its financial system to virtual asset innovation.