Digital technology our chance at becoming a prosperous economy

Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Finance (Ghana) has said digital technology is Ghana’s chance at becoming a dynamic, competitive and prosperous economy.

Ofori-Atta was speaking at the Standard Chartered Digital Banking, Innovation and Fintech Festival dubbed “Enabling the Digital Economy for the 21st Century” in Accra on Wednesday (3 November 2021).

He said, “Digital technology is our chance at becoming a dynamic, competitive and prosperous economy as such we must work together to see all the remaining barriers of technology access removed.” 

Ofori-Atta added, “Overall, government and the private sector each have a responsibility to ensure that Ghana is equipped to succeed in the digital age…”

Also speaking at the same event, Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said the government remains committed to the policy of building a digital economy and a financial ecosystem

Dr Bawumia challenged stakeholders to continue to innovate whilst collaborating, emphasising that it is still possible to collaborate and compete at the same time.

He said, “Collaboration will cement the ecosystem further. The digital economy thrives on information and collaboration. Banks, fintech, telecom companies, governments, regulators and consumers should form one big bloc sharing information and feedback that loops everyone. The collaboration will provide opportunities for entities with different specialisations to work together to achieve bigger goals.”

Financial inclusion

Dr Bawumia added, “Fundamentally, there is no inconsistency between competition and collaboration. I know that many of the stakeholders in our ecosystem, the private sector are very profit-driven. The Central Bank has to guard jealously the safety and stability of the system and strive to get financial inclusion.

He said, “But if we don’t collaborate, then everybody would be in silos, but once we come together in one ecosystem, then we are able to derive economies of scale from that collaboration, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We are very focused on inclusion, and this is why it is very important, that as we build these systems, we try to bring everybody on a common platform.”

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