Brigitta Bihari With our lives, jobs, and everyday routines transitioning to the digital space, we have all witnessed the difference Fintech solutions anchoring a near-cashless economy can make. They help establish new platforms serving diverse communities’ needs and bridging disparities in delivering financial services to households and businesses. A rapid growth in cash-not-present (CNP) payments has heralded new hope for businesses, the financially excluded and governments. CNP payments have provided respite and a channel for efficient financial mobility that enables socioeconomic transactions to thrive.
Over the last decade, the African fintech space has developed into a fast-paced innovation terrain, with Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, and South Africa leading the way.
The Ghanaian fintech ecosystem has grown significantly in recent years and is now one of the most vibrant in the Sub-Saharan region. The ecosystem covers a wide range of sectors, including business, agriculture, health, banking, and insurance, with companies primarily providing transactions enablement services, products and platforms that cut across a myriad of people’s needs such as banking, e-commerce, securities, lending, investment, payments, etc. .
For example, through the Ministry of Finance and other key stakeholders, the Government launched three policy documents in May of 2020 to fortify and properly project its FI and DFS incursions. These policy initiatives included the National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy (NFIDS), The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Policy and the Ghana Cashlite Roadmap (GCR). Developed by the Ministry of Finance in partnership with the World Bank, the NFIDS seeks to raise financial inclusion from 58% to 85% by 2023. The NFIDS targets the expansion of access to financial services for the country’s most marginalised communities, rural regions, and minorities.
Additionally, the DFS Policy, developed in collaboration with CGAP, seeks to create an efficient and robust DFS ecosystem. Through the DFS policy, the Government intends to build on existing technological gains to create a resilient, inclusive and innovative digital environment that would lead to social growth, a robust economy, and a flourishing fintech market. It is expected that the DFS policy will embolden businesses and the Government to achieve greater transparency, ecosystem efficiency and meaningfully contribute to Ghana’s economic competitiveness globally. Its implementation is expected to result in digitised and formalised payment flows and stabilised and expanded Fintech sector, while ensuring that monetary policies are practical and efficient.
The Ghana Cashlite Roadmap was also developed in collaboration with the United Nations’ Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) to bring to the fore key activities and projects with high impact potential that would propel Ghana towards achieving a highly-digitised payments economy. This program is organised into three phases, each covering two years.
You can read the full article in the Outsourcing Destination Guide Ghana, which is available for free download at www.outsourcing-destinations.org
About the author: Derrydean Dadzie is an accomplished technology entrepreneur with a keen inclination for creating smarter and enriching life experiences for people and society. After completing Ashesi University with a Computer Science Degree, Derry co-started DreamOval Limited in 2007. Over the years as the company’s CEO, Derry led DreamOval’s growth and transformation, including expanding its footprints across multiple countries. Derry left DreamOval in 2018 after leading it for 11 years to explore his creative predilections and new curiosities, including helping businesses and governments in their digital transformation journeys. Derrydean is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Technology, where he worked with key stakeholders to create a very viable and robust technology ecosystem in Ghana. He has currently founded and runs Heritors Labs LLC, a digital platforms development and innovation services hub as well as playing key roles in Ghana’s Digital Transformation and Policy Development across Government and businesses as a consultant.
Derrydean is passionate about Innovation, Fintech, Social Design, and People Development. He believes that technology innovation is the optimal pathway to Africa’s transformation. He is a proponent of the idea that Africa can experience true independence and economic progress if business and technology innovation
become the core of our economic and empowerment conversations.
