The Bank of Ghana has launched a regulatory and innovation sandbox pilot as part of its mission to promote and support fintechs, as well as drive financial inclusion.
The sandbox will provide a forum for financial sector innovators to interact with the sector regulator to test digital financial service innovations while evolving enabling regulatory environment.
It will be available to banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions and payment service providers including unregulated entities that have innovations that meet the sandbox requirements.
According to the Bank, it would prefer products and services leveraging blockchain technology, remittance, crowdfunding and e-KYC (electronic know your customer) platforms. In addition, it wants services in regtech (regulatory technology), suptech (supervisory technology), digital banking, and products targeting women financial inclusion and payment solutions for MSMEs.
The aim is to find products that drive inclusion by reducing time-to-market; allows regulators to learn about innovations faster; as well as reduces the cost of innovation for innovators. The sandbox pilot has launched in collaboration with EMTECH Service LLC.
“The Bank of Ghana through this project, would like to reaffirm its commitment to addressing the financial inclusion needs of the unbanked and underserved persons and businesses,” the Bank stated.
Ghana is regarded as a fast and stable economy in the continent and this is reflective in its growing financial and fintech sector. Much of its financial services activity and wider tech as a whole lies in its capital and largest city of Accra.
