Ghana listed among fastest growing FinTech hubs

Ghana’s quest to digitize its economy and move gradually to a cash lite system whilst ensuring financial inclusion is very much on course as the country currently ranks among the top 100 FinTech hubs in the world.

According to the 2020 Global FinTech Index City Rankings Report, Ghana ranks 4th in Africa and 58th in the world, making it one of the countries with the fastest growing FinTech ecosystems in the world.

The countries with the highest FinTech hubs in Africa include South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Africa respectively.

The growth in FinTech is a reflection of the recent role digitization has assumed across the globe due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Digitization has been identified as one of the tools that countries can leverage to fast-track their recovery processes.

As a result, FinTech as one of such products, has the potential to meet the needs of economic agents, including households, firms, governments, banks, and regulators, more efficiently and inclusively and also has the potential to help kick-start economic activities as a pathway to economic recovery.

Performance of telecom industry

Besides, the recent growth in FinTechs in the country reflects the sterling performance of Ghana’s telecom industry.  Currently, the telecom industry is ranked among the best five in the Sub-Saharan African region in terms of recent developments and fairly lower risks for investment opportunities in the industry.

Nevertheless, Ghana’s status as one of the fast-growing FinTech hubs in the world is due to the country’s combination of local entrepreneurial success, regulatory foresight and the early signs of a growing local FinTech ecosystem. As such, the report says “watch out for them in 2020 and beyond”.

Meanwhile, majority of the countries in “the Watchers” list are from Africa, Asia and the Middle East where FinTech is advancing in even the remotest areas. In Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda made the list of the top 10 countries to watch for their fast growing FinTech industry.

FinTech Ecosystem

The FinTech ecosystem of Ghana is growing and fast becoming one of the vibrant additions to the country’s financial system. It is therefore, not surprising that Ghana’s capital, Accra, ranks 5th among the largest FinTech hubs in the African continent, behind Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, and Cape town.

According to the recent FinTech report, Ghana’s strengths in the FinTech ecosystem lies in its Payments and remittances, Personal finance & Lending as well as Equity funding.  The Local FinTechs making the headlines as of 2019 include Bitland, Nvoicia, and Zeepay. Meanwhile, one of the industry events is ‘The Future of Payments, FinTechs & Ecommerce Digital Banking Summit’.

Moreover, there are several Accelerators & incubators in the FinTech industry of Ghana:  Ghana Technology and Business Hubs Network, Impact Hub Accra, Seedstars Ghana, and MEST. To complements these hubs, there are also notable associations in the ecosystem such as the Fintech & Payment Association and the Information Technology Association of Ghana.

Role of FinTech in global digital economy

Meanwhile, Simon Hardie, Founder & CEO of Findexable highlighted the significant role FinTechs play in the digital economy.

“Fintech is the electricity of the global digital economy – making connections, and finding the path of least resistance to make it easier, cheaper, (dare-we-say it fairer?), to transact. And for more people, in more parts of the world, than was ever before possible”.

The Findexable Global Fintech Index City Rankings report ranks the FinTech ecosystems of more than 230 Cities, 65 Countries, and 7000 Fintech companies.  The report highlights that the world’s top 100 leading FinTech cities, almost half are found in emerging markets.