The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Stephen Blewett has
emphasized the relevance of Africa’s FinTech ecosystem in driving
digital revolution across the African continent. He made the statement at the
opening of the 3i Africa Summit ongoing at the Accra
International Conference Center.
The summit is being organized under the
theme ‘Unleashing Africa's FinTech and Digital Economic
Potential,’ and provides an opportunity to foster collaboration among
diverse stakeholders to drive innovation across Africa.
The 3i Africa Summit is a
collaborative initiative by the Bank of Ghana, Development Bank of Ghana, and
the Monetary Authority of Singapore to showcase and stimulate Africa’s FinTech
and digital potential. It is a groundbreaking global event focused on
transforming Africa’s economic landscape through sustainable, long-term capital
allocation.
In his address, Mr. Stephen Blewett highlighted the
importance of the African fintech ecosystem as a driving force towards a
digital revolution. He said, “Africa’s fintech
ecosystem is the engine that will drive its digital revolution and economic
development in the coming years. Fintech can stimulate local economies and
drive progress across the continent in several ways – financial inclusion,
innovation and entrepreneurship, job creation, cross-border transactions and
payments, digital identity and security, agriculture and rural development,
government services, investment, and funding, as well as digital and financial
literacy. The success of services like MTN’s Mobile Money and
Vodafone and Safaricom’s M-pesa provide sufficient evidence of the
ability of fintech to revolutionize business on the continent and provide
millions of people with access to essential financial services.”
He added, “Despite
these gains, Africa lags far behind the world in mobile adoption and
innovation. Constraints such as low infrastructure coverage,
affordability of data and smartphones, and lack of digital skills training
continue to inhibit access to the Internet among vulnerable groups, especially
women. We must therefore make every effort to remove these
bottlenecks and close the usage gap by improving data coverage and lowering the
cost of data and data-enabled devices especially in rural and
low-income areas and enhance digital literacy.”
Stephen Blewett also spoke on the issue of sustainability and
urged business leaders and policymakers to contribute to ensuring that
the right ESG practices remain key in their commercial
activities.
“We must not lose sight
of the impact that our actions have on our environment and
society and strive towards creating shared value in business outcomes. We must
progressively reduce our carbon footprints by investing in
renewable energy, and other energy-efficient tools and
technologies that lead to efficiency. We must take up the challenge of placing
Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) at the heart of our commercial
activities and support the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals. I believe that together, we can shape an Africa
that not only thrives in the digital age but also serves as
a shining example of inclusive and sustainable development.”
Other speakers from MTN are
Shaibu Haruna, CEO of Mobile Money Limited Ghana and Eli Hini, CEO MoMo PSB,
Nigeria. The rest are Cedric Nguessan,
MTN Group Finco Payments and E- Commerce, Angela Mensah-Poku, Chief Enterprise
Business Officer MTN Ghana, and Dario Bianchi, Chief Digital Officer, MTN
Ghana.
