SIM registration to boost delivery of financial services devoid of fraud, theft – 1st Dep Governor

The First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari has said that the Bank, in line with our risk-based approach, has since developed a comprehensive licensing regime which carefully examined and calibrated the requirements of each license category to be commensurate with the risks presented by their permissible activities.

He sid it also sought to address the reality that some accommodation needs to be made for smaller entities and indigenous Ghanaian service providers.

To fulfill the mandate in the National Payments Infrastructure Roadmap, he said, the central bank in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communications and other relevant stakeholders have been working rigorously together to set the foundational digital infrastructure base of the economy in place.

He said the ongoing sim-card registration exercise being championed by the National Communication Authority (NCA) which has the BoG’s full support, will ensure the centralization of Know Your Customer (KYC) data to boost delivery of financial services devoid of fraud, theft and opportunities for money laundering and financing of terrorism.

The consumer, he explained, should be at the center of our collective efforts. As such, the Bank will not relent on its effort to protect them.

“It is in this vain that the Bank of Ghana has developed an artificial intelligence powered automated customer complaint system, I believe this community refers to it as a chatbot; dubbed ‘Akushika’,” he said during the Standard Chartered Digital Banking, Innovation and Fintech Festival 2022, in Accra on Tuesday October 25.

“This customer experience solution is being deployed as an additional mechanism, to manage consumer complaints and promote consumer protection. The chatbot is currently in its pilot phase and I would like to use this opportunity to encourage you all to interact with it to ensure that it becomes fit for its purpose.

“In anticipation of our future role as a central bank within a digital economy, we set out to explore the possibility of introducing a central bank digital currency called the eCedi through a comprehensive pilot testing process that has just ended,” he added.

Dr Opoku-Afari further indicated that the pilot saw the testing of online and offline versions of the eCedi in Accra, Tarkwa and Sefwi Asafo.

The pilot has unearthed useful insights on the impact of the initiative of the Bank which will prove instrumental in the event of a full-scale deployment of the eCedi.

“Further to building a safe payments ecosystem as well as promoting innovation, the Bank of Ghana launched the Regulatory Sandbox on the 19th of August 2022, to support responsible innovation, innovations currently unregulated and immature, and nurture new business models.

“The design of the sandbox framework enables small scale, live testing of innovative financial products, services and business models by eligible financial service providers and start-ups in a controlled environment under the supervision of the Bank of
Ghana.

“The sandbox will among others, enable the Bank to understand the risks these innovations pose to the digital payments ecosystem to better mitigate them.

“It also has the added advantage of potentially reducing the go to market time frame for innovators,” he said.