When Every African Bank Has the Same AI, What Exactly Is the Competitive Advantage?
When Every African Bank Has the Same AI, What Exactly Is the Competitive Advantage? The more African banks spend on
Continue readingWhen Every African Bank Has the Same AI, What Exactly Is the Competitive Advantage? The more African banks spend on
Continue readingAfrica’s SMEs Are Becoming More Visible. Can Our Financial Institutions Act on What They See? By Ethel Cofie What Is
Continue readingWhen One Financial Decision Becomes Four Regulated Products A woman walks into a shop in Accra to buy a new
Continue readingAfrica is moving from debating whether crypto should be regulated to deciding how it should be regulated.
That is broadly the right direction.
Ghana is bringing virtual assets formally inside the regulatory perimeter. South Africa is incorporating crypto assets into its broader capital-flow architecture. Nigeria has moved through restriction, enforcement and towards a more formal regulatory framework.
The reasons are obvious. Consumer losses matter. Money laundering matters. Tax matters. Capital flows matter. Financial stability matters.
But I think there is another question hiding underneath the regulatory conversation.
Millions of Africans are choosing stablecoins despite uncertain protection, fraud risk and regulatory ambiguity. What exactly are they trying to buy?
Because what if part of Africa’s stablecoin boom is not really demand for crypto at all?
AI Governance Is Becoming a Board Competence, Not an IT Competence Somewhere in Africa this week, a board is approving
Continue readingWhen Every Bank Uses the Same Technology Providers, Is It Still an Institutional Risk? Five banks. One failure point. Who
Continue readingTwo weeks ago, Ethel Cofie had the privilege of moderating a Central Banks’ Roundtable on stablecoins with senior representatives from four African central banks: Mr. Gallington Mawire, Deputy Director of Financial Markets at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe; Mr. Isaac Muhanga, Chief Operations Officer at the Bank of Zambia; Mr. Jimmy Apaa, Director of Financial Markets at the Bank of Uganda; and Dr. Yamungu Kayandabila, Deputy Governor for Economic and Financial Policies at the Bank of Tanzania.
Continue readingEthel Cofie’s Speech at the future of finance dialogue event hosted the Bank of Ghana HQ by the Governor Dr
Continue readingBy Ethel Cofie CEO, EDEL Technology Consulting | blog.ethelcofie.com Africa Must Not Become the Cash-Out Point of the Stablecoin Economy
Continue reading. The continent was never likely to produce one neat WeChat-for-Africa, sweeping across markets with one interface, one model and one rhythm of adoption. That benchmark was always too lazy for a region this fragmented, this uneven in digital adoption, and this differently regulated from one market to the next. What is emerging instead is narrower, but more durable. The African super-app dream has narrowed, not died. But the market has already voted against the broad lifestyle version of that idea. What is working is not the app that tries to do everything. It is the platform that becomes the default channel for everyday money and then layers services outward from there.
The cleanest place to begin is MTN’s Ayoba. For a while, Ayoba looked like one of the boldest homegrown attempts to build an African super app at scale.