First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, has said the establishment of the Fintech and Innovation Office at the Central Bank has significantly helped champion financial inclusion efforts and digitization, while driving a cash lite agenda.

Speaking in an interview with Nasdaq at the Singapore FinTech Festival, Dr Opoku Afari said efforts made towards propelling the fintech and innovation space in Ghana falls in line with government’s digitization agenda.

“The Bank of Ghana has been at the centre of this digitization drive and since the setting up of the Payment Systems and Services Act as well as the Fintech and Innovation Office, we have put together a lot of policy initiatives that are align together with government’s broader agenda,” the deputy BoG Governor told Nasdaq.

He further cited the Risk Based Licensing and Regulatory Framework as a means to strike a good balance between innovation and financial stability.

“We have to tried to do this in ensuring that we can bring proportionality to the way fintechs are regulated and licensed to give them the flexibility to innovate but at the same time ensure that we don’t compromise on financial stability,” he added.

The first deputy BoG governor shared that the Central Bank’s vision for fintech and inclusion will be hinged on policies and guidelines.

“For instance, the BoG has introduced a regulatory Sandbox, guidelines for crowdfunding, guidelines for inward remittances, initiatives like the E-Cedi pilot where fintechs been at the forefront. We have also introduced the Ghana Industry Infrastructure where alternative data can be used to provide loan support for SMEs,” he said.

The Singapore FinTech Festival is the largest fintech event in the world and a knowledge platform for the global FinTech community. The festival is organized annually by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Elevandi and Constellar in collaboration with the Association of Banks in Singapore.

Watch Dr Opoku Afari’s interview with Nasdaq below