The sixth international AITEC banking and mobile money conference which took place in Accra, Ghana from the 9th – 10th July 2014 has ended with exhibitors, speakers and participants calling for rules and regulations from central banks within Africa to give mobile money operators more room to operate.
They also called for banks and telecommunications companies to allow customers to be able to use their different networks to transfer money. For instance, a customer on MTN mobile money transfer in Ghana cannot collect money transferred from Airtel Ghana. This according to most speakers does not help the money transfer business in Africa thereby making it difficult to make the cashless mantra in Africa a near impossibility.
The conference which did not only provide a platform for operators, customers and all other stakeholders in the financial sector to update their knowledge with latest international developments in payment technologies, best practices, and latest trends in customer service delivery, also covered broader themes of risk management, governance, regulation and compliance critical in deepening and broadening financial intermediation.
The theme of the conference was “See the future of Banking and Payment in West Africa.”
Ghana’s Finance Minister’s welcome remark which was delivered by Joseph Chognuru, Director, Financial Sector Division (FSD) highlighted the importance of a vibrant financial sector to every nations economic development and explained his government’s efforts in uplifting the country’s financial sector.
“Evidence all over the world indicates that a vibrant financial sector is critical to unleash the economic potentials of an economy and ensure accelerated, inclusive and sustainable growth and development. Government has therefore embarked on various reforms over the years and is working assiduously to bring our financial sector to a higher level that will enable the sector continue to contribute meaningfully to our development process. We therefore find this conference timely and opportune,” he stated.
The Chairman of AITEC, Mr. Seam Moroney in his welcome note stated that “the financial melt-down in the US and Europe over the past five years has demonstrated the folly of a banking hell-bent on short-term profits and bonuses rather than the traditional core role of banks i.e. financing medium and longterm wealth creation through financial facilities and investments in productive activities across all levels.” He therefore stress the need for developing higher standards of customer service, customer education, financial exclusion, driving down cost through innovation and effective security which he said the conference tried to address.
Various companies in the mobile banking industry were at the exhibition stand to display their products. Most of the participants who came from the banking and telecommunication industry were full of praise for the success of the conference. They indicated the conference has helped them to appraise themselves with the new face of mobile banking and will do their best to keep pace with the current trend in the banking industry.
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