Dr. Ernest Addison
Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, has urged participants in the ongoing 3i Summit in Accra to explore new opportunities.
According to him, although Africa’s fintech growth has been hindered by investor scalability, it was important for stakeholders to explore new opportunities for positive digitalization change in the fintech space
Dr. Addison was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 3i Africa Summit taking place at the Accra International Conference centre from 13th-15th May 2024.
“Together let us work so that this 3i Africa Summit serves as a catalyst for positive digitalization change that will resonate across Africa and beyond”, the Governor stressed.
Dr. Addison identified a significant obstacle facing Africa’s fintech sector including the lack of scalability for investors.
He therefore emphasised the urgent need for Africa to accelerate its digitalisation efforts by nurturing homegrown financial technologies across the continent.
He stressed the importance of prioritising innovation, investment, and impactful policy to propel economic growth and development through digitalisation.
Dr. Addison highlighted Africa’s advantageous position, citing it rapidly expanding and tech-savvy youthful population, widespread mobile phone usage, improving network accessibility, and the presence of indigenous fintech solutions.
“The regulatory aspect is another reason not to ignore the issue of deficient findings in the fintech space. Fintech should have the ability to navigate regulatory requirements and meet complaint standards which we all agree are non-negotiables, especially, in Africa’s financial industry. Hence the need to address the information gap between the investors and fintech startups to stimulate the payment ecosystem,” he added.
The summit is under the theme ‘Unleashing the Fintech and Digital Economic Potential of Africa’ and it is expected to bring together key players within the finance sector across Africa and the globe.
On his part the Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, emphasised government’s unwavering commitment to creating an enabling environment for the growth of the financial sector.
By Vincent Kubi