An eight-member delegation from the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) led by Hollywood actor, Dr. Idris Elba and the SDF Chief Executive Officer, Denelle Dixon, have paid a courtesy call on Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of Bank of Ghana to discuss collaboration to support creative arts industry. 

The non-profit organization, whose objective is to use blockchain to unlock the world’s economic potential by making money more fluid, markets more open, and people more empowered, presented a blockchain-based fintech innovation designed to guarantee fair compensation for participants in the local creative industry, whose works are commercialised globally, and to enhance access to financing for their works (especially for upcoming creators/artists) through smart contracts.

This will address the current challenge of most industry players in Africa being locked out of the global payments ecosystem, leading to gross violations of their Intellectual Properties(IPs) and copyrights, inability to access funding opportunities for growth or worse still realise funds that are legitimately earned via commercial use of their works around the world. 

The discussion also focused on how both parties could explore piloting technology and policy innovation to enhance the IPs and copyrights administration for the benefit of local content creators. 

According to the delegation, it selection of Ghana as a potential pilot country for this innovation was on account of the Bank’s advancement in the area of central bank digital currency (the eCedi) and tokenization more broadly.  

 The Bank of Ghana and the Stellar Development Foundation both expressed their commitment to collaborate on this initiative for the long-term benefit of the creative industry, particularly the youth.