Africa’s surest path to a digital revolution, with its attendant benefits, is through the innovation and implementation of tailor-made solutions pioneered by Fintech to address the continent’s challenges, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has stated.
Speaking in Accra on Monday, Dr Bawumia enumerated the various innovations pioneered by Fintech, which have now become mainstream and completely changed everyday life for the better and pledged the government’s commitment to supporting such innovators, especially homegrown innovators.
“What is clear is that the digital revolution that we are witnessing across the world and what we are seeing in Africa in particular, in all of these what is clear is that you cannot really have this revolution without a revolution in Fintech,” Vice President Bawumia stated at the Press Launch of the 3i Africa Summit, to be held in May this year.
The Summit, jointly developed by the Bank of Ghana, Development Bank Ghana, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and supported by Elevandi, aims to spearhead transformative discussions, address key growth and investment opportunities, and explore how market players in the financial ecosystem are leapfrogging in digital transformation and pioneer the much-needed dialogues and actions to drive Africa’s Fintech growth.
“The path to the digital revolution is through Fintech and that is why we want to see the advancement of Fintech. Africa’s path is going to be different from many other countries and that is why it’s very important that whilst we want to learn from other countries, we should learn more from each other because our path is going to be different because we don’t have the type of legacy systems that the advanced countries have and we can therefore leapfrog many advanced countries once we set our minds to it.
“I’m very encouraged with what we are seeing in terms of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the PAPSS (Pan-African Payment and Settlement System) that is coming up to encourage payments. President Akufo-Addo talked recently about interoperability across the continent and we have to be doing things that have not been done in many other places.
“So I am very excited about the attention we are paying to Fintech because it is the key to the leapfrogging and to the digital revolution in Africa. Whatever we do, whatever services we are trying to provide, ultimately we have to pay for them, and the Fintech are providing the means for that,” he explained.
Stressing the importance of collaboration and peer learning, Dr Bawumia commended the organisers of the Summit, noting, “This is why this 3I Africa summit is so important, so we can bring all the stakeholders and players together to brainstorm and think through how we leapfrog and we transition Africa into the digital revolution.
“Indeed, the investment and innovation undertaken by government and its concomitant positive impact on the lives of the citizenry as well as the efficiency in operations of various relevant institutions cannot be overemphasised.
“This, therefore, denotes the fact that digital transformation is an inevitable necessity, an appropriate system, a flexible response to emergencies, challenges and needs, and a means used to achieve economic and social development.
“I would like to reiterate the government’s statement earlier that we will be setting up a Fintech Innovation Fund to support startups and other Fintech. What is clear in this whole journey towards digitalisation, what for me has been so amazing is that most of the digitalisation that we are seeing is homegrown.
“This is driven by local Fintech and local IT firms. So the know-how is here. The innovation is here. Usually they lack the capital to take these innovations to make the sort of impact. So we need the investment.
In a related development, Vice President Bawumia has commissioned an ultra-modern office building for the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements System (GhIPPS).
Accompanied by the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison and other key players in Ghana’s financial ecosystem, Dr Bawumia charged officials of GhIPPS to maintain their high standards and continue to innovate to meet the evolving demands in the financial sector.
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
