fbpx

Fintech In Ghana: Drivers, Challenges And A Path To Industry Growth

Fintech In Ghana: Drivers, Challenges And A Path To Industry Growth

Ghana
Ghana and FinTech: How financial technology entrepreneurs in Ghana face drivers, challenges, and a path to industry growth.

In Ghana, the startup entrepreneurship ecosystem is dotted with a few dozen organizations looking to use technology as a lever to augment traditional financial services, contribute to building a better national financial system, and expand financial inclusion among other things. Ghanaians can make mobile payments and money transfers, access loans and raise funds, as well as manage financial assets from mobile devices without entering a banking hall.

In this paper, the Africa Centre for Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment (ACEYE) explores innovations spearheaded by Financial Technology (FinTech) companies within the broader framework of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and offers a path to growth for players in the FinTech space.

From Modern Ghana.

Payment solution companies in Ghana such as mobile money services operated by telcos, smartphone applications such as zeepay and expresspay, crowdfunding apps like GoFundMe and Kickstarter, Insuretech, distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies are key components of the FinTech ecosystem. In Ghana, the telcos have rather leapfrogged and are now leading the pack in terms of payment solution FinTechs.

A typical payment solutions company needs the cooperation of telcos who currently provide mobile money services, commercial banks, the bank of Ghana, and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS), which owns the platform that enables mobile money operability and automated clearing.

The relationship among these partners is delicately balanced to ensure a mutually beneficial working relationship. ACEYE has observed that telcos have been covertly trying to limit the flexibility and convenience of using other payment apps such as expresspay, zeepay, and the likes. While it was initially simple to move money across these smartphone powered applications and mobile money wallets, telcos have revised the procedure and in some cases, the number of steps required to validate and complete a transaction across these platforms thus, making the users less satisfied compared to completing transactions directly through mobile money wallets.

The insurance industry in Ghana is also gradually integrating technology into its core business within the broader meaning of insuretech. Vehicle insurance is now done online and made readily verifiable by anyone with access to a mobile phone or the Internet. The National Insurance Commission (NIC) hopes to curb the menace of vehicles with fake motor insurance stickers plying the roads, thus, endangering lives and property, through the launch and use of the motor insurance database. Significant strides have been made in the FinTech subsector.

Read more at Modern Ghana.