Banks will merge with larger Fintechs, according to John Awuah

According to John Awuah, the CEO of the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB), banks in the nation will soon transform into larger fintech enterprises.

The CEO predicted that banks will eventually stop competing with fintechs and instead grow to be larger fintechs as they invest consistently to increase their digital footprints across the nation.

In a “Money Summit” interview with the Rapid Business, he stated he also anticipated a paradigm shift where consumers’ digital footprints would be the industry’s driving force.

“We will reach a point, and that point is rapidly coming, where customers’ digital footprints will be the deciding factor.

Less human interaction, as shown in fewer mobile money agents, will be the norm in the future, he predicted.

Requirement for cooperation

Speaking at the summit as well, Kwame Oppong, the Bank of Ghana’s Head of Fintech and Innovation, emphasized the necessity of cooperation between banks, telcos, and fintechs to ensure the industry’s advancement.

He claimed that although there was still fierce rivalry in the sector, there was also a need for more cooperation. He said, “We can be allies in some situations and enemies in others, but this is good for the industry’s overall development.”

Additionally, Mr. Oppong noted that many clients were now proving unequivocally that it was more profitable to create a firm where customers had more options for digital financial services, adding that the BoG wished to see more of this. Our main objective, he said, is to make sure that the industry is secure and that it can enable the development of new technologies.

Adoption of technology by Banks

In contrast to the perception that banks had shown a significant degree of inertia toward the adoption of technology, Nana Dwemoh Benneh, the Chief Executive Officer at UMB Bank, claimed that banks were at the vanguard of the digital finance revolution.

According to him, banks have always had a keen awareness of their consumers, and because of this, they have always been at the forefront of innovation.

The traditional institutions were starting to implement solutions like banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which allowed for increased third-party participation and ensured that customers could access all the necessary goods and services from a single source, despite the fact that fintechs had been more nimble.

He continued by saying that since investors—who are getting more concerned about the security of their money—feel more at ease letting banks manage capital, this would result in banks working with fintechs more frequently, particularly to facilitate access to financing for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Democratization of financial services

Kofi Adomakoh, the CEO of GCB Bank, added that if banks and fintechs worked together to spur innovation, financial services would become more democratic.

He stated, “We must clearly see what the synergistic benefits are and whether the solutions are scalable, as a lack of clarity with these could destroy all the potential benefits.

Mr. Adomako was also confident that the mechanisms put in place to ensure domestic market growth would allow for the achievement of optimistic growth estimates in the fintech sector.

According to a Mckinsey & Company study, Ghana’s Fintech earnings might total US$18.6 billion by 2025.”That estimate might sound like a lofty goal, but if we keep acting morally and putting decent rules in place, it’s feasible.

There is no scarcity of talent, and the introduction of initiatives like the Ghana Card and SIM card registration has allowed us to enter a much more organized environment, which will aid in our expansion, according to him.
Draw quote

There will come a time, and that time is now, when consumer digital footprints will be the deciding factor.

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