Ethel Cofie’s Speech at the future of finance dialogue event hosted the Bank of Ghana HQ by the Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, Accra.
Ethel Cofie’s Speech at the future of finance dialogue event hosted the Bank of Ghana HQ by the Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiamah, Accra.
Good evening, Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama and Deputy Governors, public-sector leaders, market leaders and partners in African finance.
Thank you for joining us at The Future of Finance Dialogues Africa, the official side event of the 3i Africa Summit, convened in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana.
This evening is not quite a conference session, and it is not quite just dinner. It sits somewhere between policy, market intelligence and institutional alignment.
And because we have regulators present, let me say very quickly: the supervision is deeply appreciated.
Yesterday, in his keynote address, the Governor reminded us that digital finance is no longer at the margins of financial sector development. It is now central to how value is created, how trust is built, and how markets are connected.
He also raised the bigger question: will Africa merely participate in the next phase of finance, or will Africa help shape it?
That, in many ways, is why we are here tonight.
Because the future of finance will not be shaped by technology alone. It will be shaped by the strength of our institutions, the quality of our regulation, and the seriousness of our market execution.
I come to this conversation not only as the convenor of The Future Dialogues
I come to it as someone who has spent years working where technology meets institutions, where innovation meets regulation, and where ambition meets execution.
I have built technology businesses. I have worked with boards and executive teams on digital transformation. I have advised institutions trying to turn digital ambition into practical results.
So when I speak about the future of finance, I am not speaking about it as a theme.
I am speaking about it as an operating reality.
It is a boardroom issue.
It is a regulatory issue.
It is a market execution issue.
That is why this room matters.
Our own market intelligence from Future of Finance Dialogues events puts flesh on that charge. If you look in your pack you will see a 2 pager on the state of African digital finance
When we asked senior decision-makers across Africa what the single largest barrier to scaling digital finance was, sixty-one percent named regulatory uncertainty. Not capital. Not technology. Not infrastructure investment. Regulatory uncertainty.
A good number cited cross-border interoperability. And fewer still said fragmented data and identity systems.
These are not fintech ceo’s complaints. These are the responses of CEOs, fintech operators, and development finance institutions.
Real-time payment systems are live in 38 African markets. Mobile money processed 1.3 trillion dollars in transactions last year alone. We have the payment infrastructure
The question is no longer whether digital finance will transform this continent. It already has.
The harder question is whether we can govern it well enough, coordinate it intelligently enough, and execute against it consistently enough to serve the next phase of Africa’s growth.
Payments are becoming infrastructure. Mobile money is behaving like a public utility. Open finance is moving from concept to implementation.
As an operator, I know that innovation does not scale because we have exciting apps on the market
It scales when regulation, infrastructure and trust begin to align.
Again Markets do not scale on excitement. They scale when the operating environment is strong enough to carry ambition.
That is the real work of the future of finance.
We all love innovation. But in finance, innovation without trust is just a very expensive pilot with nice branding.
And let me say this carefully, because I am surrounded by regulators: the best regulators are not anti-innovation. They are anti-chaos.
Good regulation does not kill serious innovation. It separates serious innovation from expensive confusion.
So tonight, the conversation must come back to three questions
And those questions are sitting on the cards on your table
Also we don’t want the conversation to end with very little structured intelligence.
Because this room is not only a room of influence. It is a room of insight.
In this room there are people here who understand regulation from the inside. There are people here who understand market execution from the inside. There are people here who understand what it takes to build, fund and scale financial systems in Africa.
That intelligence is valuable.
So tonight, we want to capture it carefully, anonymise it responsibly, and turn it into insight that can help the ecosystem understand where the market is really going an regulators, a clearer read of market sentiment.
This we are doing in two ways , the rapporteur seated at each table reporting on the conversations and secondlyI encourage you to use to visit the market intelligence booths you saw on your way and share with us your expert thoughts .
For The Future of finance Dialogues, Our ambition is simple, but serious.
To bring the right people into the room.
To ask the right questions.
To produce intelligence that helps decision-makers act with more clarity.
So tonight, I invite us to have the kind of conversation that serious markets require.
Not only about innovation, but about execution.
Not only about opportunity, but about risk.
Not only about regulation, but about market design.
Lastly Thank you to Governor Asiama for hosting this evening. To First and Second Deputy Governor Asante-Asiedu, to the Bank of Ghana, to the 3i Africa Summit team, to our sponsors, partners, and to every guest who made time to be here.
Welcome to the Future of Finance Dialogues Africa.
Let us have the kind of conversation that makes the formal sessions of the main conference stronger, ou partnerships sharper, and the future of African finance a little clearer.
Let tonight be remembered not simply for who was in the room, but for what the room made possible.