The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has tasked financial technology businesses (Fintechs) with investigating the vast prospects in the traditional financial services industry – “susu” activities.
Furthermore, the Central Bank encouraged fintechs to invest in enterprises that would capture the “technologically savvy youth” through tailor-made digitally enabled financial products that would satisfy their demands.
The Bank of Ghana’s Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, stated this in a speech given on his behalf at the recently concluded second edition of the Ghana FinTech Awards, stressing that this would improve financial inclusion and support economic stability.
Fintechs, he added, were becoming more significant in the financial system by providing new and inventive ways for consumers and businesses to manage financial resources, make payments, and obtain loans.
The Governor emphasized that such efforts contribute to financial inclusion, economic prosperity, and societal well-being, and he challenged fintechs to do more by providing digital financial services in susu operations.
“We must not neglect the low-hanging fruit,” he remarked. The traditional susu business, for example, has many similarities with crowdsourcing. The Bank of Ghana’s crowdfunding policy has created an enabling regulatory environment for Fintechs to explore and improve on this financial model that Ghanaians are familiar with.”
He remarked that susu, a hybrid savings, investment, and credit system, had a great appeal among the unbanked and underserved, and that it could be a holistic answer to some of the country’s inclusion issues.
Dr. Addison promised that the Bank of Ghana will continue to collaborate with fintechs to guarantee that financial services were available to all Ghanaians, regardless of income or geography, by encouraging and providing a favorable regulatory environment.
He praised fintechs for their contributions to the financial services sector and the Ghanaian economy, stating that “prior to the emergence of fintechs, the unbanked and underserved were not profitable market segments for the traditional players in the financial service industry based on the branch model.”
“With the introduction of fintechs and the enormous network of mobile telephony, savings, credit, insurance, investment, and pension products are now available across the country, and even in geographically challenging regions,” he added.
During a panel discussion, participants in the sector emphasized the importance of the sector to economic growth and urged the government and other regulatory agencies to improve the fintech ecosystem for increased growth.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Darryl Abraham Mawutor, Growth Director of Taptap Send, Africa, said it was critical for the government to relax rules and tax systems to promote the sector.
“When we loosen regulation a little bit, it will allow other fintech companies to enter the industry – the more regulations the government and regulators put in the way, the less likely fintech will expand,” he said.
“For the government to assist the fintech business expand, it must repeal something like e-levy, which is a tax on an already suffering industry, e-levy harms the industry more than anything else,” he said.
Mr Mawutor then urged the government to analyze and revamp its tax laws in the e-commerce and fintech industries so that they are more focused on corporations rather than people.
He also advocated for a synergy between education and the fintech business in order for people to understand the trends and developments in the fintech industry and explore career alternatives for themselves.
