Dr. Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, has identified a significant obstacle facing Africa’s fintech sector: the lack of scalability for investors.

Addressing attendees on Day 1 of the 3i Africa Summit in Accra, Dr Addison emphasised the urgent need for Africa to accelerate its digitalisation efforts by nurturing homegrown financial technologies across the continent.

He stressed the importance of prioritising innovation, investment, and impactful policy to propel economic growth and development through digitalisation.

Dr. Addison highlighted Africa’s advantageous position, citing it rapidly expanding and tech-savvy youthful population, widespread mobile phone usage, improving network accessibility, and the presence of indigenous fintech solutions.

However, he cautioned that the pace of innovation and scalability of fintech solutions could be hindered without sufficient investment.

“Despite the lack of requisite investment in Africa, fintech could slow the pace of innovation and scalability of solutions in achieving the desired impact of a digitised Africa. The general lack of investor scalability is a major challenge of local fintech.

Dr Addison also highlighted regulatory challenges facing fintech startups, emphasising the importance of navigating regulatory requirements and meeting compliance standards.

“The regulatory aspect is another reason not to ignore the issue of deficient findings in the fintech space. Fintech should have the ability to navigate regulatory requirements and meet complaint standards which we all agree are non-negotiables, especially, in Africa’s financial industry. Hence the need to address the information gap between the investors and fintech startups to stimulate the payment ecosystem,” he added.

The summit is under the theme ‘Unleashing the Fintech and Digital Economic Potential of Africa’ and it is expected to bring together key players within the finance sector across Africa and the globe.