Kofi Ahovi

  Mensah Thompson, Acting Deputy Director General of Operations at the Securities and Exchange Commission, says Ghana is positioning itself to embrace virtual assets and tokenised finance through a regulatory framework designed to encourage innovation while protecting investors and maintaining financial stability. Speaking on the topic "Ghana’s Approach to Virtual Assets: Enabling Innovation While Safeguarding Stability" at the 3i Africa Summit in Accra, Thompson said regulators are working closely with industry stakeholders to create a credible and responsible virtual asset ecosystem. According to him, Ghana’s improving economic environment has strengthened investor confidence and created momentum for new forms of digital investment and financial innovation. Less than a year ago, many people questioned whether Ghana could recover from its economic difficulties, but today the results are becoming increasingly visible,” he said. He pointed to declining inflation, improving mar...

Stanbic Bank Ghana has announced a GHS 3 million commitment to support the Black Stars of Ghana in their FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign, which will be hosted across the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico. The announcement was made at a presentation ceremony at the Ministry of Finance at Kanda in Accra. The contribution makes Stanbic Bank one of Ghana’s most significant private-sector backers of the national football team ahead of the country’s anticipated return to the world’s biggest football tournament.   Kwamina Asomaning, Chief Executive, Stanbic Bank Ghana, presenting cheque to Hon. Thomas Ampem Nyarko, Deputy Minister for Finance. The GHS 3 million pledge is deliberately structured to blend immediate encouragement with performance-driven motivation. An initial GHS 1.5 million will be presented upfront as a bonus on bonus for the playing body while the remaining GHS 1.5 million will be unlocked the moment the team advances to the knockout rounds of the competition. Sta...

 Speakers at the ongoing 3i Africa Summit have called for stronger and more inclusive capital markets across Africa, stressing that the continent’s ability to attract long-term global investment will depend on building trust, liquidity, regulatory certainty and scalable financial infrastructure. Speaking during a panel discussion on “Building Functional Capital Markets: Global Investment, Liquidity, and Africa’s Path to Scale,” industry leaders argued that Africa is not short of capital or opportunity, but continues to struggle with market structures that can support large-scale institutional investment. The discussion featured Joyce Boakye- Head of listing at the Ghana Stock Exchange, Darren Johnson, Rosa Whitaker and legal experts in the financial sector. Opening the session, panelists noted that despite hosting some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and youngest populations, African capital markets still account for only a small fraction of global portfolio allocations. T...

  Nathalie Kouassi-Akon, Divisional Director for West Africa (Gulf of Guinea) at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) , has called for stronger digital integration across Africa, warning that fragmented systems could slow the continent’s economic transformation despite rapid growth in internet access. Speaking on day two of a three-day 3i Africa Summit in Accra, she said Africa must move beyond simply expanding digital access and focus on building interconnected systems that drive productivity, regional trade and job creation. According to her, internet use in Sub-Saharan Africa grew by more than 115 percent between 2016 and 2021, bringing an additional 191 million people online. However, she noted that more than 60 percent of Africans living within broadband coverage areas remain unconnected. The question is no longer whether Africa can connect. The question is whether our systems connect well enough to drive growth, jobs, competitiveness and scale,” she said. Kouassi-Akon ...

  By Abdallah Toutoungi Founder and CEO, Cybershield Consulting Company. Within a period of 9 days, two significant technical systemic faults took down the thermal and hydro power generation capacity of Ghana. The first was at the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), where a Burner Management System (BMS) controller for the Heat Medium System failed completely. The second was a fire and an explosion at the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) switchyard at Akosombo. Neither incident has been attributed to cyber. Cybershield is not suggesting that either was. The uncomfortable truth is that the national system tolerated two non-adversarial, single-point of failure events of consequential magnitude within those nine days. If the system is that exposed to ordinary equipment failure, the question of whether its exposure to deliberate and a capable adversary is one no responsible operator, regulator, or board member should ignore. If a single controller failure and a single substatio...

  Fintech leaders at the 3i Africa Summit in Accra have called for stronger collaboration, talent development and regulatory alignment to position Africa as a global leader in digital finance innovation. Speaking at a joint media briefing, Chief Executive Officer of JUMO Ghana, Philip Owusu-Gyamfi, Senior Partner at GFTN, Matteo Rizzi, and Group Chief Executive Officer of JUMO, Paul Whelpton, said Africa had moved beyond simply adopting financial technology and was now creating globally recognised innovations. The speakers said the continent’s rapid expansion in mobile money, digital lending and financial technology had demonstrated Africa’s ability to develop solutions capable of transforming lives and economies. Africa has been a champion for innovation in financial services in the past 10 years. What we need now is acceleration,” Paul Whelpton said. The executives stressed that the next phase of growth would depend on deliberate investment in African talent, stronger partnership...