Founder of EDEL Technology Consulting, Ethel Cofie, has called for a creation of third deputy governor position at the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to oversee digital financial services in Ghana. She said, while praising the central bank for its effort at regulating the fintech sector in Ghana, that there is room for improvement by creating a third deputy governor position at the BoG that is dedicated to the industry. That person must be a ‘digital person’ with access to the BoG Board to accelerate a lot of the policies initiated for the fintech industry.

“I’ve said this before on platforms, one of the biggest factors, success factors for us in the industry, or otherwise, is lifelong regulators. So we have people who don’t understand the space but we’re very lucky in Ghana. I think there is room for growth there and I will say it again because I’ve said it on the Bank of Ghana stage that I still think there is room for improvement, and I still think there is a need for a third deputy governor who is dedicated from the industry, who is a digital person and I think has access to the BoG Board that has that level, I think that will accelerate a number of the things we’ve done.”

She was speaking on a panel discussion at the ACI Ghana financial markets conference in Accra. The fintech industry is undergoing what the Head, Fintech Oversight & Supervision Unit at the Bank of Ghana, Hayford Kumah calls “regulatory trilemma” where government is seen pushing several digitalisation policies aimed at engendering financial inclusion by using FinTech to drive it. According to him, there is an intentionality to use FinTech to promote access to financial services for MSMEs. He however noted that as a regulator the Bank of Ghana pushes for financial inclusion for obvious benefits; simplicity of rules while leaving out the issue of market conduct and stability.

Therefore, in order to have a balance, there has to be a system in place for innovators and disruptors to collaborate with banks.

“Remember that our first and primary responsibility is for price stability. So, to have a balance, you want to have a system in place where innovators, disruptors, who may not have been quite in the regulatory space for long, and so sometimes find it difficult to appreciate regulations, will have to collaborate with the banks so that while the banks are benefiting from the innovative ideas, they can also benefit from the AML compliance learnings that the banks have built all these years.”, He said

For Ethel Cofie, one other factor of the remarkable growth in the digital payments/fintech ecosystem that is worth celebrating is MTN, as observed by her, that they have “done the work” in “building out the pipeline”. By building its ‘chenosis’ API technology, MTN has empowered businesses and developers to build more efficiently and cost-effectively, fostering a sense of community and collaboration. She noted that it is going to be a gamechanger because about 90% of the mobile money sits with them.

“And I asked somebody the other day that if you wanted economic data on Ghana, outside of middle income, you would have to look at the MTN mobile money data… we have a young, skilled group of people that will build out things.”