By Racheal Asamoah
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, has identified that the lack of versatility for investors is a significant obstacle facing Africa’s fintech sector.
Speaking at the opening of the 3i Africa Summit in Accra, Dr Addison emphasized the urgent need for Africa to accelerate its digitalization efforts by nurturing domestic financial technologies across the continent.
He stressed the importance of prioritizing innovation, investment, and impactful policy to propel economic growth and development through digitalization.
Dr. Addison highlighted Africa’s valuable position, citing it rapidly expanding and tech-savvy youthful population, widespread use of mobile phones, improving network convenience, and the presence of indigenous fintech solutions.
He, however, cautioned that the pace of innovation and scalability of fintech solutions could be hindered without sufficient investment.
“Despite the lack of requisite investment in Africa, fintech could slow the pace of innovation and scalability of solutions in achieving the desired impact of a digitized Africa. The general lack of investor scalability is a major challenge of local fintech,” he explained.
Dr Addison also highlighted regulatory challenges facing fintech startups, emphasizing the need to navigating regulatory requirements and meeting compliance standards.
He added that “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.”
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.
The event seeks to generate greater momentum and power for Africa’s digital finance agenda by causing finance, policy and technology to meet at the crossroads.
