The Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has assured Ghanaians, especially women that the next NDC government, would bridge the gender gap in financial inclusion, to promote women-owned financial institutions that will focus on women-owned businesses to promoting financial inclusion among women.
This according to him, It is worrying that the gender gap between females and males continue to widen in the financial inclusion stating that the Global Findex Reports, in 2014, the financial inclusion gender gap was 3 percent more male access than female and the inequality gap increased to 8 percent in 2017 and 11 percent in 2021.
In line with his vision for the sector, Mahama, also disclosed intentions to inaugurate a women’s bank to address prevailing gender disparities within the financial domain and stressed the need for inclusive policies and initiatives that empower individuals and businesses to leverage technology for socio-economic growth and prosperity.
The Flagbearer of the NDC, said this when he engaged in a dialogue with the Ghana Fintech Ecosystem with Ghana’s Fintech community in Accra. The forum was aimed at discussing measures and policies to unleash the potential of tech firms, especially financial technology firms that needs urgent attention to put Ghana on the path of sustained and inclusive development.
“Considering that women form about 50.7 percent of the population and own about 44 percent of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises constituting about 92 percent of businesses in Ghana, their exclusion from financial services could undermine our economic development efforts”. Mr Mahama stated.
He reiterated his commitment to leveraging technology for the advancement of Ghana and emphasized the pivotal role of technology in driving development and innovation across various sectors of the Ghanaian economy emphasizing the pivotal role of technology in driving development and innovation across various sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
Mr Mahama highlighted the transformative potential of technology, stating that harnessing its power could lead to significant progress in areas such as education, healthcare, agriculture, and governance, and emphasized the need for Ghana to embrace digitalization and invest in building a robust technological infrastructure to propel the nation forward in the global digital age.
Mr Mahama, revealed that the next NDC administration will promote and nurture innovation hubs through public and private partnerships to harness technology to address Ghana’s development challenges adding that he will establish a fintech transformative growth fund to address the teething financial needs of Ghanaian-owned fintechs with an initial seed capital of 50 million dollars to support indigenous companies in fostering the growth of the digital economy.
He pointed out that under the policy, fintech innovators, would be groomed to be technology entrepreneurs, build businesses on their innovations, attract investment, and creates jobs saying; a separate body of eminent persons would administer the fund per the standards of transparency, fairness, equal opportunities and merit.
“I believe in harnessing technology to address Ghana’s development challenges, which explains my commitment to setting up Innovation Hubs in partnership with the public and private sectors.But that’s not all! I also have great news for our Fintech industry. We will establish a US$50 million Transformative Growth Fund to support Ghanaian-owned Fintech companies in addressing their financial needs. This fund will help groom fintech innovators into technology entrepreneurs, attract investment, and create jobs.” He stressed.
Having laid the solid foundation for the growth of financial technology products since 2014, former President Mahama said the next NDC government, commits to implementing the policies and programmes I have outlined to boost the growth of Ghanaian fintechs.
He also outlined some of his achievements in providing digital infrastructure including, a 900 km rural fibre network that runs through five (5) regions, twenty (20) districts and over one hundred and twenty (120) communities from the south to the Upper East Region.
Mr Mahama, added that an additional 300 km radius metro fibre network with the capacity to offer Wi-Fi and other ICT services to the public and institutions, a state owned 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network anchored by 119 base stations across the country, on which the GOTA phone runs and the largest and most modern Tier 3 – six hundred (600) Rackspace Data Centre in West Africa, with a forty-five (45) Rackspace backup facility at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology are all his achievements when he was in office.
He therefore emphasized that the digital technology ecosystem also has a solid role to play in driving the 24-hour economy initiative describing it as a deliberate policy intervention developed to encourage and support businesses and companies to operate 24/7, in a three-shift system of eight hours each stressing that It will create an enabling environment that promotes productivity, competitiveness and well-paying jobs for the youth.
