Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana has revealed that businesses will suffer if they fail to incorporate and embrace digitalization in their business models.
According to him, government’s strategy in containing the COVID-19 exposed some digitization gap. This gap, he revealed, brought opportunities for businesses to ensure economic effectiveness and growth.
That notwithstanding, Dr. Opoku-Afari opined that, businesses unable to latch onto digitalization will bare the consequences post pandemic.
He further indicated that the financial sector digitization programme forms part of government’s bigger project to formalise the economy.
“Obviously, the more than 17 million active mobile money accounts, provides ample evidence of the increasing adoption of digital payments and provide a fertile ground for businesses to explore digital channels to interact with customers.
“In spite of the tremendous achievements towards building a financial inclusive society through digitisation, the COVID19 containment measures put in place at the height of the pandemic by the Government highlighted the digitization gap and brought to fore the extent to which this gap can be exploited by businesses for economic efficiency and growth.
“The inability of businesses to incorporate and embrace digitalization in their business models will undoubtedly create a void with dire consequences for the survivability of businesses during a post-pandemic”.
Digitalization transition
Dr. Opoku-Afari also highlighted on the challenges and cost businesses will incur in their change of business models. According to him, the “transition will not be an easy one” due to costs “associated with changing business models”.
In spite of the imminent challenges, Dr Opoku-Afari argued that they must remain optimistic in their “pursuit of their ideals”. He further advised they “take a long-term view of where they want to see their operations a decade from now”.
“I am fully aware that some businesses are beginning to internalize this new normal and are taking adequate steps to adopt digital technology in their operations to ensure their relevance as well as grow their business traffic.
“As the surge in customer online transactions progressed, in large part due to the COVID-19 restrictions imposed on the economy limited movements we are beginning to witness strong and enduring habits that are gravitating more towards online customer-business interactions. A customer-centric business would of necessity have to restructure its operations to accommodate the increasing customer preference for online buying”.
Financial inclusivity
To this end, Dr. Opoku- Afari stressed that businesses now have the convenience of liaising with service providers to provide online payment platforms.
These platforms, he argued, are licensed by the Bank to provide merchant acquiring and payment aggregation service for businesses.
He further opined that, solutions designed and made available to businesses do not impose “high infrastructure cost” and requirements.
“This policy change is expected to facilitate acceptance of digital payments by small and medium size enterprises so as to provide convenience to their customers and also expand the geographical reach of their business”.
Additionally, he maintained that the Bank of Ghana has issued a three-tier merchant digital account to guide financial service providers. Some of the services which will be provided include meeting the peculiar needs of small and medium scale enterprises.
Realizing the importance of SMEs, Dr. Opoku-Afari averred that the Central Bank is working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The collaboration, he noted, will enable SMEs leverage digital technology to improve on their businesses.
Similarly, he revealed that it will give them “access to explore global market opportunities.”
