Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama told a fintech summit in Accra that Africa’s next digital finance phase will depend on robust biometric identity systems, better coordination and cleaner data, warning that weak authentication raises fraud risk and erodes trust. He delivered the keynote at the 3i Africa summit on a day when Ghana also said it wants to work with Zambia and Rwanda on cross-border payment interoperability.
Asiama said the financial system must evolve in a structured and predictable way if it is to support innovation at scale. In remarks at the summit, he said the work ahead is not just about issuing laws, guidelines or frameworks, but about strengthening the service infrastructure around regulation so that processes are clear, submissions are trackable and decisions are timely. That, he said, is how confidence is built.
The central bank chief cited a World Bank report showing that almost 50 percent of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa now have access to digital finance, with mobile money adoption the main engine of that expansion. But he argued the gains so far are only the first stage. The next phase, he said, will require stronger coordination across institutions, improved data quality and more robust identity systems.
Those comments came at the 3i Africa summit, first organized in 2024 and hosted this year by the Bank of Ghana, GhIPSS and the Global Finance and Technology Network of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The event brings together policymakers, industry players and other stakeholders to discuss how to grow Africa’s fintech landscape and the digital economy.
Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang said Ghana is looking to work with Zambia and Rwanda on interoperability for infrastructure to boost cross-border digital trade transactions, including a pilot on mutual recognition of national IDs for KYC, mobile money payments interoperability and digital invoicing. She said the effort fits the African Continental Free Trade Area’s single market vision, linking domestic digital finance reforms with the wider push to make cross-border trade work more smoothly.
Asiama also pressed for a more mature digital finance ecosystem, saying firms with strong potential need partnerships, capital and infrastructure to scale sustainably. His message suggested that adoption alone is no longer the test of progress. For Africa’s digital finance market, the harder task now is to turn reach into reliability.
