According to Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Bank has since developed a comprehensive licensing regime that has carefully examined and calibrated the requirements of each license category to be commensurate with the risks presented by their permissible activities.
He added that it also sought to address the reality that some accommodations for smaller entities and indigenous Ghanaian service providers were required.
To fulfill the mandate outlined in the National Payments Infrastructure Roadmap, he stated that the central bank has been working diligently with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communications, and other relevant stakeholders to establish the economy’s foundational digital infrastructure base.
To fulfill the mandate outlined in the National Payments Infrastructure Roadmap, he stated that the central bank has been working diligently with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communications, and other relevant stakeholders to establish the economy’s foundational digital infrastructure base.
He stated that the ongoing sim-card registration exercise spearheaded by the National Communication Authority (NCA), which has the full support of the BoG, will ensure the centralization of Know Your Customer (KYC) data to improve the delivery of financial services free of fraud, theft, and opportunities for money laundering and terrorism financing.
He explained that the consumer should be at the center of our collective efforts. As a result, the Bank will not relent in its efforts to safeguard them.
“It is in this spirit that the Bank of Ghana has developed an artificial intelligence-powered automated customer complaint system, which I believe this community refers to as a chatbot and has been dubbed ‘Akushika,'” he said on Tuesday, October 25 at the Standard Chartered Digital Banking, Innovation, and Fintech Festival 2022 in Accra.
“This customer experience solution is being used as an additional mechanism to manage consumer complaints and protect consumers.” The chatbot is currently in its testing phase, and I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity to encourage you all to interact with it so that it can become fit for its purpose.
“In anticipation of our future role as a central bank within a digital economy, we set out to investigate the possibility of introducing a central bank digital currency called the eCedi through a thorough pilot testing process that has just concluded,” he added.
Dr. Opoku-Afari also stated that during the pilot, online and offline versions of the eCedi were tested in Accra, Tarkwa, and Sefwi Asafo.
The pilot has provided useful insights into the impact of the Bank’s initiative, which will be useful in the event of a full-scale deployment of the eCedi.
“Further to promoting innovation and building a safe payments ecosystem, the Bank of Ghana launched the Regulatory Sandbox on August 19, 2022, to support responsible innovation, innovations that are currently unregulated and immature, and to nurture new business models.”
“The sandbox framework’s design allows eligible financial service providers and start-ups to conduct small-scale, live testing of innovative financial products, services, and business models in a controlled environment under the supervision of the Bank of Ghana.”
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“Among other things, the sandbox will allow the Bank to better understand the risks that these innovations pose to the digital payments ecosystem.”
“It also has the added benefit of potentially shortening the time to market for innovators,” he said.
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