Mind of the Writer Blog of Thursday, 12 June 2025
Source: Etsey Atisu

On 10 June 2025, the Bank of Ghana issued Notice No. BG / GOV / SEC / 2025 / 13, “Caution on Unlicensed Digital Platforms.” This notice made reference to Yellow Pay, a USD Stablecoin-related offering from Yellow Card Financial Inc. (“Yellow Card”) that is not available in Ghana.
Yellow Card Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of Yellow Card, was incorporated in 2020. Yellow Card Ghana is registered for reporting purposes with the Financial Intelligence Centre, Ghana. In addition, Yellow Card Ghana is registered with the Data Protection Commission, Ghana under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).
Yellow Card takes the integrity of its brand seriously and believes the public is entitled to accurate and truthful information. Therefore, Yellow Card wishes to make clear, for the record:
Yellow Card has never ‘engaged in an ongoing collaboration with HanyPay,’ nor has Yellow Card ever been involved in a partnership or any other type of collaboration ‘to develop and integrate a new stable coin, AKL Lumi, into the global financial ecosystem.’
Yellow Card has never entered into any agreement with HanyPay related to Yellow Pay or Yellow Card’s Payments API, and HanyPay has never conducted a single transaction for even one cedi with Yellow Card Ghana or any other member of the Yellow Card group of companies anywhere in the world.
HanyPay initiated an onboarding and integration process with Yellow Card for use of its Payments API in late 2024, but this process was never completed.
On 12 February 2025, HanyPay issued a press release claiming to have integrated with Yellow Card. This press release contained false information and was not authorised by Yellow Card. On 5 June 2025, as requested by representatives of the Bank of Ghana, Yellow Card issued its own press release unequivocally stating that there is not any partnership or collaboration between Yellow Card and HanyPay, neither in Ghana nor any other jurisdiction.
Craig Stoehr, Yellow Card’s General Counsel, said, “It is most unfortunate that the Bank of Ghana determined to publish this notice, as Yellow Card Ghana clearly communicated the above-mentioned facts to representatives of the Bank of Ghana well in advance of issuance of the notice.
"Looking beyond this matter, Yellow Card welcomed publication of the Bank of Ghana’s Draft Guidelines on Digital Assets in August 2024, on which we commented extensively, as well as the recent statements of Governor Asiama indicating a regulatory framework for digital assets will be in place by this September. We have, on a number of occasions, communicated our staunch support for regulation of Ghana’s digital assets sector.
"Moreover, we have informed the Bank of Ghana repeatedly of our willingness to assist in any manner that might be helpful with respect to drafting these regulations. We have played a meaningful role in the development of digital assets legislation and regulations introduced in Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, and Morocco, and we look forward to having the opportunity to do the same in Ghana.”