By Leo Nelson
Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama has told Accra’s 3i Africa Summit that the continent’s digital finance agenda must move decisively beyond basic payments.
In a blunt assessment on 6 May, he argued that while payment infrastructure is now ‘increasingly in place’, the real challenge lies in building more sophisticated financial products and, crucially, connecting fragmented systems.
Asiama’s intervention signals a shift at the central bank. Having spent years championing mobile money and agent banking, the BoG now wants to drive digital credit, embedded finance, supply chain finance and cross-border services. ‘The next phase of digital finance will not be defined by payments alone,’ he said.
The fragmentation trap. Despite impressive mobile money penetration in Ghana and beyond, Asiama acknowledged that high transaction costs, uneven regulatory frameworks and a lack of interoperability remain severe brakes on growth.
‘The issue is no longer access alone. It is fragmentation, it is cost, and it is uneven regulatory alignment. The challenge is no longer building systems. It is connecting them.’
This is a pointed reference to the persistence of walled gardens where different mobile money operators and banks still do not speak seamlessly to each other, both within countries and across borders. For fintechs seeking to scale regionally, each new market requires fresh licences, separate integrations and often costly workarounds.
Regulatory balancing act. Asiama insisted that regulation and growth ‘must reinforce each other’, rejecting the notion that tighter rules kill innovation. The BoG is pressing ahead with frameworks for virtual assets, digital credit products and open banking, while also supporting cross-border fintech operations.
But he also warned that weak digital identity systems and poor Know Your Customer processes are ‘weak authentication’ that ‘increases fraud risk, affects credit quality and undermines trust’.
Indigenous champions. Perhaps most striking was Asiama’s call for governments and investors to back home-grown fintech firms. ‘Africa’s digital finance ecosystem must not only grow, it must mature. Africa has reached a point where participation is no longer the ambition. Leadership, on the other hand, is.’
That language ‘leadership’ rather than ‘participation’ echoes a broader continental frustration that foreign-owned platforms and payment rails still capture much of the value from Africa’s digital boom. Whether Ghana’s regulators can translate that ambition into practical support for local innovators, without stifling competition, remains an open question.
The bottom line. Asiama is right that payments alone will not transform African economies. But moving up the value chain requires solving the very fragmentation he identifies and that means political will, not just central bank circulars. The next wave of digital finance will be defined less by technology than by whether African regulators can finally make their systems talk to each other.