Financial Technology services have become essential for today’s highly connected consumers.
Over the years, Ghanaian Fintech companies have become a gateway to access digital financial services by providing inexpensive and more accessible financial solutions for Ghanaians.
The fintech industry has fostered financial inclusion and progressed in the direction of a cash-lite economy, driven by digital products and services. There has been a significant level of growth over the past years in response to emerging trends and technologies like Insurtech, Blockchain Technology, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Leveraging these technologies, Fintech companies are also partnering with financial institutions to make digital financial services convenient and accessible. This has seen the rise in Banking Application and USSD codes for banking purposes. GCB Bank through its e-money service called G-money has made financial services convenient, accessible and available via USSD, App, and a QR Code.
To further redefine the delivery of financial services, Nsano created a technologically-driven, user-centric solution called Move Secure, a Mobile Money escrow service, to curb the growing mistrust and online scams within the e-commerce space.
On the regulatory front, the Central Bank has demonstrated its support for the Fintech industry with the launch of a new FinTech and Innovation Office in May 2020, to drive the Bank’s cash-lite, e-payments, and digitization agenda.
In February 2021, The Bank of Ghana also launched a regulatory and innovation sandbox pilot; a regulatory environment that enables firms like banks, specialized deposit-taking institutions and payment service providers to test innovative products, services and business models to assess their usefulness and viability in the market.
The Central Bank further cemented their support by for Financial Technology with its recent announcement to introduce the e-cedi, a state-backed digital currency, making it one of the first Central Banks to enhance digital financial services in Africa.
For a majority of Ghana’s population, digital technology has become the driving force for financial services. With these technologies and trends, the Fintech industry has more room to grow and innovate to provide the digitization that the world has acknowledged as the way forward.