The 7th Africa Money And Defi Summit West Africa ended successfly in Accra, Ghana, with a lot of exciting innovative DeFi showcased. The event hosted various players and stakeholders in the Fintech and DeFi space including Africa Blot Labs , Cellulant, Workpay, Penee, Yellow card (Ghana), Stake fair Polygon, Flutterwave, MasterCard, Visa, Bamboo, Bitpowr, Paystack, EMTECH, Conclase, YellowCard,  and several others.

The two-day event was to connect FinTech companies across the globe, and companies in decentralized finance (DeFi), payments, crypto, Web3, digital lending, FX, digital identity, cybersecurity, insurtech, mobile money, investors, start-ups, regulators and industry stakeholders.

Head of FinTech, BoG, Mr. Kwame Oppong

Delivery the keynote address on behalf of the First Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Head of Fintech BoG, Mr. Kwame Oppong noted that “so far a total of 47 payment service providers and mobile money operators have been given approval both Ghanaian and foreign across various license countries to provide payment services.” He explained that although the volatility of crypto and Fintech will be hard on the Central Bank, BoG is monitoring developments in the Fintech space to implement measures best for virtual assets to forestall any risk to the ecosystem by collaborating with other regulators and stakeholders when necessary.

Mr. Opoku again noted that even though the regulator is not pushing for regulation for cryptocurrencies in the country, it is however open to technologies like stablecoin and is currently finishing up piloting the digital currency, e-Cedi.

Speaking to Knowledge Innovations, CEO and Founder of EMTECH, Carmelle Cadet said , ” Africa Tech Summit always put amazing event together, so here in Ghana, I think it really highlights the ecosystem growing in Ghana, Fintech has been kind of highlighted, and for VCs investments across Africa as well.” “I think it’s very exciting to see Fintechs come to Ghana, learning more about the West African dynamics, usually that happens in East Africa where Kenya gets the highlight or Nigeria, now we’re in Ghana”

Carmelle said the event highlighted that  there’s so much to do and for EMTECH it’s the opportunity to increase financial inclusion, create better products around credit, lending, and provide Innovation for across many different industries, Agriculture, Healthcare, Education, and others.

Crypto & DeFi in Africa – Where to From here? 

Head of Exchange, Brian Dennis said “We need to educate the people to be able to build the DeFi industry. Without education, we cannot have growth” ” We want to start with the younger generations. Because these young people will grow and will end up growing with these education on DeFi”

BARRIERS TO DEFI

“Low education and inaccessibility to funding are the two barriers to DeFi aside regulation. These people have the ideas on DeFi but don’t know how to find funding and even sell to the same set of people. We’re building a chain to help Africans build on it for a sustainable development ” Sarah Odahosa, lead NG Community and Token Team, MARAverse

FUTURE OF FINTECH

Given the recent developments with central banks like that of Ghana and Nigeria journeying to digital currencies, Carmelle thinks “it’s just the beginning, I think there’s a lot to go. Those are early days, and central banks are really learning about what’s possible with CBDC but I think the adoption and the Fintech ecosystem plugging in with CBDC, I think it’s really going to unlock a lot of value. The years to come are exciting and I’m really excited about what to come in Africa”

Some key speakers includes Country Manager for Visa, Adoma Owusu, Country Manager for Cellulant, Eric Kortey, General Manager of Commercial at Zeepay, Dede Quarshie, Founder and C.E.O of WiPay, Aldwyn Wayne, CEO of Deimos, a cloud native developer at a security operations company, Andrew Mori and a host of other speakers.

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