The 3rd edition of the Ghana Fintech Awards has been launched. The award scheme is aimed at identifying Financial Technology (FinTech) companies and banking institution stalwarts to celebrate their success throughout the year.
In addition, the awards event aims at promoting Ghanaian FinTechs’ competitive advantage and building a resilient FinTech space for economic growth to achieve financial inclusion through enhancing the convenience of financial transactions.
The launch of the 3rd edition was held at KPMG Ghana on Thursday, October 19th and it also marked the opening of nominations for awards which will take place on Saturday, February 3rd, 2024 at the Labadi Beach Hotel.
Speaking at the launch, Project Coordinator for the Ghana FinTech Awards and Chief Financial Officer of Arkel Limited, Cristina Swan-Awagah, said the awards event became necessary within the ecosystem due to the revolutionary surge across the global financial sector particularly as a result of the technological components embedded in the way finance operates.
“As enablers, financial technology and digital financial service providers are now providing the opportunity to corporate businesses, SMEs, individuals and commerce practitioners to ensure that clients now have a convenient and seamless financial transaction right at their fingertips”, she said.
“These advantages are the reasons which led to the institution of Ghana Fintech Awards specifically to celebrate and appreciate the efforts of FinTech companies and individuals providing us with this ease of financial transactions”, she added.
Vice President of Finance, Administration & Operations at Ghana Fintech and Payments Association, Mazior Nyanyo, while highlighting the benefits of the award on the financial sector, said that it has given the needed recognition to institutions that are revolutionizing financial services through technology. This in turn has contributed to a surge in financial inclusion in Ghana which was below 60% before covid.
She added that the awards promote innovation and encourage solutions that support the Ghanaian ecosystem.
“ … in terms of DFS, Digital Financial Services journey, it starts with interoperability, payment systems, the national financial services, inclusion and development policies; and all these things set the stage for the formation of the association and the institution of the awards.”
“So you can see that the policy and the innovation directly influence the economy. You see people paying for electricity with apps. You now even have embedded insurance and microinsurance so if you look at the DFS ecosystem and journey, you could see that the award has greatly impacted more innovators coming into the ecosystem and creating more beneficial systems and solutions”, she noted.
KPMG, who are part of the organizers, are in charge of the judging process for the awards. They promised a more inclusive and robust judging process this year. According to KPMG, this year’s voting process will include public votes which will take about 40%, a set of juries that will evaluate the nominees for each category and score them over 40% as well as the regulator taking charge of the remaining 20%. They also assured of well-defined criteria for the over thirty-three (33) categories for this year.
This year’s award will see the launch of “Women in Fintech”. This initiative aims to bridge the gender gap in the Fintech industry and halt discrimination and inequality in the industry.
The nominations for the Ghana Fintech Awards which opened on Thursday, October 19, will end on Friday November 10, 2023 with the main event taking place on Saturday, November 3, 2024.
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