Standard Chartered Bank will commence its inaugural Digital Banking, Innovation and Fintech Festival tomorrow, Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra.
The festival which will take place between November 3 and November 4, 2021 forms part of the activities marking the 125th anniversary celebrations of Standard Chartered Bank in Ghana. The Fintech festival is being held under the theme ‘Shaping the next phase of Ghana’s Financial Technology Landscape for the 21st Century’.
This high-level event will bring together local and international players in the Fintech ecosystem, seasoned experts and practicing Fintech innovators to engage and share insights on how to adopt, leverage and scale digitization, innovation and technology within the financial sector.
The Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is expected to deliver the keynote address on the opening day. Dr. Bawumia is expected to outline among other things, the government’s plan to continue setting Ghana apart as the true digital hub of Africa with a robust digitized financial technology ecosystem.
Some notable speakers
The two-day event will see other notable leaders of industry and top-level government officials in attendance including: Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta – Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Hon. Ursula Owusu Ekuful – Minister of Communication & Digitalisation, Ghana. Also in attendance will be Dr. Ernest Addison – Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Sunil Kaushal – CEO of Africa & Middle East Standard Chartered PLC and Alex Manson – Member of SC Ventures.
Mr. Archie Hesse – Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Limited, Mr. Sampson Akligoh – Director of the Financial Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance, and Mr. Ebenezer Asante, first Ghanaian to head MTN Ghana and current Vice President of MTN Group’s West and Central Africa (WECA) Region are also expected to speak during the festival.
The festival has lined-up several insightful panel discussion sessions over the two days. The sessions will explore the impact and opportunities of the increasingly robust and digitized financial ecosystem and the lessons learnt from Ghana’s digitization journey so far.
Participants will also discuss how financial sustainability, innovation and technology can maximize participation in addition to how to best leverage digital banking, tokenization and trust corridors to lift African trade flows. The event will begin at 9 am GMT each day and end at 3pm GMT.
Standard Chartered Bank @ 125
This year marks 125 years of Standard Chartered’s presence in Ghana. The Bank draws its history from the Bank of British West Africa which was set up in 1896. Being the oldest and first commercial bank in Ghana and having served as the Central Bank until 1953, Standard Chartered has been at the forefront of banking and economic evolution in Ghana. Standard Chartered highlighted that in recent years, “we have invested heavily in digitalization to meet the rapidly changing client needs at the right scale”.
“As part of the activities marking the 125th anniversary celebration, we are providing a platform for Government and key stakeholders including FinTechs to showcase Ghana’s digital infrastructure and the great strides Ghana has made on the national digitalization journey at the premier Standard Chartered Digital Banking, Innovation and Fintech Festival”.
Standard Chartered
The festival is being organized by Standard Chartered in collaboration with Bank of Ghana and SC Ventures (Innovation, ventures and fintech investment unit of Standard Chartered). The Fintech Festival will bring together FinTechs from Singapore and other parts of Asia as well as local FinTechs to showcase, engage and share future tech capabilities.
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