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African countries must coordinate and harmonise its regulatory frameworks to promote trade, digital payments as well as financial inclusion across the continent, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, has said.
According to him, collaboration was crucial to help the continent to fully realise its vision of one Africa, one market.
Opening the 3i Africa Summit – Policy Forum Accra-Ghana, 2025 in Accra yesterday, the BoG Governor said Africa must harmonise its regulatory frameworks, foster interoperability across financial infrastructures, and build trust and transparency across jurisdictions.
“No single institution, no matter how well-resourced, can drive this transformation alone,” he said.
The day’s programme was organised by the BoG under the theme “One Africa, One Market: Driving Innovation, Investment, and Impact for a Connected Future.”
Attended by Governors, Ministers, and representatives of fintech, digital technology organisations and experts, banks from Africa and across the world, it was to discuss key levers for driving Africa’s digital financial integration and strategies to attract sustainable investment into fintech and digital finance.
The BoG Governor said regional integration was achievable through trusted partnerships.
He said Fintech was bridging access gaps particularly for underserved and remote communities, indicating that cross-border digital payments were gaining traction to ease trade frictions and accelerate regional commerce.
Dr Asiama said regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs were taking root offering safe environments to test new technologies within the realities of the African context.
The BoG Governor said the gains were being reinforced by modern regulatory approaches by pilot programmes, by innovation offices and digital public infrastructure frameworks that were all designed to promote inclusive finance, enhance Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises participation and unleash the creativity of Africa’s youth and entrepreneurs.
“Let this forum be a turning point where vision meets action, where policy enables innovation and where Africa steps confidently into the role as a digital financial powerhouse,” Dr Asiama stated.
The Deputy Director of the African Department of the International Monetary Fund, Vitaly Kramarenko, urged African governments to adopt creative financing solutions, including private-public partnerships to improve digital infrastructure development on the continent.
He said digital infrastructure was crucially needed for further advances in digitalisation and internet penetration.
Mr Kramarenko speaking on the topic “How Africa can attract and sustain investment in fintech and digital finance through regulatory innovation, market stability, and strategic partnerships”, said internet penetration is estimated at about 33 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, and more progress was needed to boost internet penetration.
“Only half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity, and it’s essential to increase electricity access,” he added.
Mr Kramarenko noted that growth was expected to decelerate in 2025, as a result of low external demand, subdued commodity prices, and tighter financial conditions.
“In this context, countries will need to increasingly rely on their internal sources of development, including through further progress in fiscal reforms, and more importantly, structural transformation, promoting a growing role of private sector investment,” he said.
He said policymakers should focus on infrastructure development, digital finance innovation, and regional trade facilitation to promote the socio-economic progress of the continent.
