Kwami Ahiabenu,II Knowledge Chief

  Nigeria was the first African country and a significant economy to launch Central Bank Digital Currency – eNaira on Oct. 25, 2021. According to The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, since its inception until August 2022, the eNaira has recorded only 840,000 downloads. Emefiele made this announcement at the eNaira Hackathon platform held to promote and develop more digital currency use cases and add on innovative products, thereby giving the eNaira platform more functionality. Currently, the 270,000 active eNaira wallets are made up of 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. The eNaira platform recorded over 200,000 transactions valued at over N4 billion ($9.5 million). This would be a drop in an ocean if you situated these eNaira statistics within the context of Nigeria’s population of 206.1 million (2020), 201.31 million (2022) mobile phone subscribers, and the value of mobile money transactions valued at  N4.86tn (11,419 B USD) . Also, ...

  This paper discusses critical considerations in the design of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in West Africa through a comparative case study of Ghana’s (eCedi) and Nigeria’s (eNaira) design frameworks. This paper analyses CBDC design options framed through context (digital payment landscape and CBDC objectives), technical aspects (design principles, architecture, risks), use cases, and deployment plans. This study conducted a thematic analysis of official CBDC design documents to identify similarities, differences, and patterns. The results indicate more similarities between the eCedi and eNaira designs than differences. Differences were observed in the CBDC deployment context, risk profiles, and plans. Surprisingly, neither country has articulated the detailed legal and regulatory environments for CBDC. This paper highlights the use of CBDC designs to promote citizens’ welfare by using financially inclusive policy goals within central banking’s welfare functions, thereby e...

Kwami Ahiabenu,II   Technology is now deeply interwoven into the fabric of elections. Electoral management bodies, political parties, civil society actors, observers and citizens are all relying on one digital technological tool or another to ensure effective conduct and participation in elections. Political parties are beginning to understand that without investments in this area their quest to win or retain political power at elections may not be achievable. Given this background, political parties have begun to evolve mechanisms and systems to ensure they are able to effectively connect with their base as well as with prospective supporters. The use of digital technologies by political parties can be segmented into five key areas; campaign events, fundraising, community management and mobilization, results management such transmission of from results from polling centers to collation center electronically and operational structure management.   Ways in which technology is u...

Kwami Ahiabenu ll The certainty of change for everything, including the internet, is a given. The changes we witness in the evolution of the Internet means significant new exciting services are driving the growth of many online applications. The first iteration of the Internet, web1 was static, made up of weblinks and homepages; then web2 came along, enabling users to create their own content seamlessly. Though web2 helped user content generation, the large tech companies providing services on the Internet had greater control and ownership of this user content. Web3 which describes the manifestation of a new iteration of the Internet anchored on blockchain technology, decentralisation and tokenisation among others, offers a unique opportunity to bring the Internet back to the control of users. The term “Web 3.0” was coined by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, in 2014 to describe his vision of the future of the Internet. Currently, web3 remains an evolving idea, and a work in progress...

  Ghana’s Financial Technology (FinTech) state of play 2022 Ghana’s Financial Technology (FinTech) is growing by leaps and bounds. The FinTech ecosystem in Ghana can be characterized as experiencing rapid transition from the “introduction to growth stage”. In the introduction stage there was a major lack of collaboration and interoperability was a far-off dream, with each FinTech working in a silo and jealously guarding its territory and trade secrets. The industry is now fully established with key institutional arrangements, capital flow, rising visibility as well as the entrepreneurship drive in place needed to sustain and grow this sector. The anchor of growth in the sector is placed squarely on the unmet demand for banking and financial services, the promise of solving financial inclusion challenges and achieving the goal of a cash-lite society in the short to medium term. Ghana’s FinTech industry is now contributing to the growth of Ghana’s economy with the potential of becomi...

  Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. It inspired a host of others to be created, but so far none can match Bitcoin’s popularity and market capitalization. Bitcoin stands tall among other cryptocurrencies because it is backed by industrial-scale mining operations that support its value, and it has managed to achieve regulated market status in countries such as Asia, US and Europe and found its way onto the balance sheets of some publicly traded companies like Microstrategy (MSTR), Tesla (TSLA), Galaxy Digital Holdings (BRPHF), Voyager Digital (VYGVF) and Square (SQ). Bitcoin mining, provides the mechanism to support the effective running of Bitcoin. Through the addition of blocks or transaction records of cryptocurrency based on a competition by miners, a sort of electronic ledger is opened and a process of validation by electronic means is set in motion; a blockchain. Each block on the network comprises a hash that is a unique 64-digit hexadecimal value conta...

Knowledge Innovations, a leading tech consultancy firm in collaboration with the Ghana Fintech and Payments Association (GFPA), is set to hold a webinar on the theme, "FinTech Innovations in Africa – Trends, Challenges and Future" scheduled for Thursday, February 24, 2022. The FinTech and Innovations focused event would bring together the continent's leading thought leaders in providing you with unparalleled insights into Africa's fast-growing FinTech Key Geographical Market Developments, Key Innovations, Collaborations, Major Drivers, Growth Trends, How FinTech are Overcoming Some Key Challenges and Exciting Predictions for the Future. Some key leaders in the African fledgling industry would speak at this landmark event to provide rare insights into emerging trends in Africa's Fintech ecosystem. These speakers include Noha Shaker, Founder of the Egyptian Fintech Association; Saqib Nazir, the Managing Director, Africa for Emergent Technology; Ali Hussein, Fintech ...

Knowledge Innovations, a leading tech consultancy firm in collaboration with the Ghana Fintech and Payments Association, is set to hold a webinar on the theme, "FinTech Innovations in Africa – Trends, Challenges and Future" scheduled for Thursday, February 24, 2022. The FinTech and Innovations focused event would bring together the continent's leading thought leaders in providing you with unparalleled insights into Africa's fast-growing FinTech Key Geographical Market Developments, Key Innovations, Collaborations, Major Drivers, Growth Trends, How FinTech are Overcoming Some Key Challenges and Exciting Predictions for the Future. Some key leaders in the African fledgling industry would speak at this landmark event to provide rare insights into emerging trends in Africa's Fintech ecosystem.  These speakers include Noha Shaker, Founder of the Egyptian Fintech Association; Saqib Nazir, the Managing Director, Africa for Emergent Technology; Ali Hussein, Fintech and Di...

Kwami Ahiabenu ll For most people, WhatsApp is a cool tool for fun. So are Telegram, Signal, WeChat, Discord, iMessage, Messages, Viber, Facebook Message, Botim etc. However, WhatsApp with over a two billion users is undoubtedly the most popular of these. The widespread use and acceptance of WhatsApp as a messaging tool has many service providers aiming to make their services available on that platform in order to reach their numerous clients. In 2018 South Africa’s Absa Bank pioneered the concept of mobile banking. Since then, banks in recognition of the power of WhatsApp are offering a wide range of services on that platform, leading to optimal efficiency as customer requests are processed in real-time. Generally, there are three types of graduated applications of WhatsApp in the banking industry; first as a primary contact center tool where clients can interact with customer care and ask questions or verify information related to banking, eliciting automated responses such as “we wi...

  Kwami Ahiabenu ll Setting up a bank can be a long, expensive process with complex regulatory and compliance hurdles to overcome. However, with the emergence of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), an entity can provide banking services without batting an eyelid. With BaaS, non-banks including FinTech, and other entities such as professional bodies or schools can offer their own branded financial products such as debit, credit, or loyalty cards. In other words, BaaS opens up banking to third parties supporting the evolution of new services and enabling greater financial transparency. BaaS is assuming great importance because it offers a great potential to expand banking services, disrupting the status quo and offering solutions that support exceptional banking consumer experience. Banking-as-a-Service is centered on the open banking model, which emphasizes consumer-driven financial service opportunities with more significant benefits accruing to consumers. Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) can ...