Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana has emphasized the pivotal role of digital technologies in shaping Africa’s future.
Speaking passionately about the urgency of embracing digitization in trade and finance, Dr. Addison at the launch of the 3i Africa Summit highlighted Africa’s strengths, including a tech-savvy youth population, extensive mobile penetration, expanding networks, and burgeoning homegrown fintech solutions.
However, he cautioned against the potential hindrance to fintech growth without adequate investment.
“We stand at the precipice of a global digital era, and it could not be more critical for Africa to accelerate digitization in trade and finance,” said Dr. Addison.
To spur fintech growth, Dr. Addison revealed plans to establish a Fintech Innovation Fund. He explained, “most nascent fintech companies lack investor visibility. We need to address this information gap between investors and startups to stimulate the payments ecosystem.”
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, a champion of Ghana’s national digitalization efforts, echoed the need to financially support fintechs. “The path to Ghana’s digital revolution is through fintech. We must support them to thrive,” he urged.
The Vice President said the government has focused on digital transformation as an economic strategy. “The objective is to ensure digital empowerment for a prosperous future in this accelerated digital era,” noted Dr. Bawumia. To that end, the government intends to set up a Fintech and Innovation Fund to provide investment for startups to scale up and drive Ghana’s digital revolution.
Finance Minister, Dr. Amin Adam also attended the launch. He reiterated the government’s commitment to supporting small businesses and startups as key economic contributors. Recently, the Bank of Ghana partnered with Development Bank Ghana and the University of Ghana Business School to study SME financing challenges.
The 3i Africa Summit, themed “From Innovation to Impact: Investing in Africa’s Financial Sector,” will take place May 13-15 in Accra. It aims to unlock Africa’s potential by harnessing fintech.
The summit will feature a lab crawl to connect startups with investors, 15 keynote speakers, over 100 global investors and tech executives, and sessions to discuss innovation and policy. Governor Addison invited all industry stakeholders to participate and make history advancing Africa’s fintech revolution.
In all these DBG has been a catalyst and glue, by bringing key players like the Bank of Ghana, the University of Ghana, and a host of other government agencies and commercial banks together and driving the agenda in line with their mandate of supporting SMEs to secure a transformation of the economy.
