Managing Director of GCB Bank Plc. (GCB), Kofi Adomako, has urged financial institutions to leverage financial technology (fintech) in order to drive financial inclusion and ensure their sustainability going into the future.
He explained that collaborating and growing together with fintech is not only key to ensuring sustainability but also vital to achieving their strategic business goals in a future where, according to him, digital devices such as mobile phones and tablets will become the sole means by which financial transactions, wealth management and loan acquisition, among other things, will be carried out.
“I see even for investment banking in the global market, distribution of fixed-income products all being done through mobile phones,” Adomako said, adding that there is a need for banks to work with stakeholders including fintechs to come up with sustainable solutions in the future.
He made these comments while speaking on the topic ‘From competition to collaboration – how fintech is shaping the future of finance’, at the 2023 Money Summit organised by Business and Financial Times’ (B&FT) and held in Accra.
Ghana has one of Africa’s most-rapidly growing financial technology and mobile money markets according to a research by Boston Consulting Group in 2020, which ranked it as the world’s third-highest country for mobile money payment patronage – behind China and Kenya, with its fintech landscape largely covering the banking and financial services sector, insurance, telecommunications and non-bank financial services.
Nana Yaw Owusu Banahene, Country Manager for AZA Finance, taking his turn to speak at the summit indicated that Ghana’s fintech landscape is replete with innovations in the sphere of mobile payment systems and e-commerce platforms – to the insurance industry’s neglect as well as other critical aspects of the country’s service delivery operations.
For this reason, he said, there is a need for insurance companies to leverage fintech in promoting the development of innovative digital insurance solutions and products to achieve the goal of inclusiveness for insurance access, and to assist both individuals and particularly small- and medium-scale enterprises with their insurance needs.
“We have talked about financial inclusion a lot, but it is limited to certain services,” he said.
For her part, Head of Business Enablement-Stanbic Bank Ghana, Marian Amartey, urged banks to invest heavily in data analysis, which according to her will be key to their future executions.
Mr. John Awuah, Chief Executive Officer-Ghana Association of Banks (GAB), talking about a future in which technology will be the main driver of banking business noted that: “In this future, your digital footprint is going to be more proper collateral than property or physical assets; so a bank will be looking at presence within the digital arena more than the physical property to assess your creditworthiness”.
