Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has made a clarion call on banks, financial institutions, and other stakeholders to invest in digitalization and innovation as it is the most resilient and effective means to propel the economy ahead in this fourth industrial revolution period.
He said just like client service, innovation must be at the very heart of every business arguing that it will greatly accelerate economic development and prosperity, enhance public administration, tax mobilization, trade facilitation, decrease unemployment, and combat corruption.
Speaking at the Standard Chartered Digital Banking, Innovation and Fintech Festival dubbed “Enabling the Digital Economy for the 21st Century” in Accra on Wednesday, Vice President Dr. Bawumia said technology, from new means of providing services to new employment models, was quickly becoming a key engine of countries’ productive potential.
He observed that digital innovation was sparking and enhancing economic growth potential in unprecedented ways.
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He, therefore, encouraged the financial sector participants to collaborate and participate in other to develop synergies that would enable them and the public to reap the full benefits of digitalization.
He emphasized that Collaboration will provide opportunities for entities with different specializations to work together to achieve bigger goals
To him, there are no inconsistencies between collaboration and competition.
“Fundamentally there is no inconsistency between competition and collaboration. I know that many of the stakeholders, in our ecosystem, the private sector, guard jealously the safety and stability of the system and thrive to get financial inclusion… once we come together in one ecosystem then we are able to derive economies of scale from that collaboration where the whole is greater than the sum” he said.
Ms. Mansa Nettey, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered and President of the Ghana Association of Bankers, stated in her welcome remarks that as part of its corporate social responsibility, the bank had supported small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and empowered youth, women, and persons with disabilities through financial solutions.
She said that the bank has also provided advisory services to SMEs and its customers in other to help them harness the digital economy.
This she notes will also help Ghana to achieve its goal of being a financial hub in the sub-region.
The Standard Chartered Digital Banking, Innovation and Fintech Festival event is also meant to celebrate 125 years of Standard Chartered operation in Ghana.
Source: FAROUK ADAM
