The Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Daniel Addo, has asked banks and fintech companies to forge more collaborations, as this will not only help better customer experiences but also accelerate profitability and growth.

According to him, commercial banks and fintech companies have different sets of abilities as well as autonomy in operation, and can rely on their strengths to complement each other.

Speaking in an interview with the B&FT on the sidelines of the sixth edition of Ghana’s Most Respected CEOs (GMRCEOs) breakfast series, Mr. Addo said: “Between banks and the fintechs, it is really a collaboration. Collaboration requires that we each play to our strengths. As banks, our strength is in the management of risks, governance and provision of capital.

“For fintechs, their strength is in agility and the ability to move very quickly and respond to changes. They can be the ones that are producing and designing the products and running the tests and bringing them to us. Then the banks will look and tick the boxes of risk management and available opportunity, and together we fashion-out the product and go to the market. If we play to our strength and they play to theirs, we have a winning combination.”

He believes collaboration would provide better opportunities for both parties, and banks are not apprehensive toward innovation that adds value to their operations. “We don’t see it that the fintech companies are going to eat our lunch,” Mr. Addo said.

His comments were on the back of comments made by other panellists, Ethel Cofie-CEO of Edel Technologies; and Leticia Brown, Co-Director of Intelligent Capital, who made a strong case for banks to give more attention to fintech companies.

According to them, the future of payment systems is currently being fashioned by fintech companies – but it can be accelerated with some more financial support.

“Fintechs are working hard, and there are many of them with some brilliant innovations that will need support from banks and financial institutions. It’s been a while since I spoke to a lot of bankers at one location, and I want to take advantage of this to tell the bankers here to set up a department that goes looking into researching, or maybe acquiring or supporting fintechs with relevant innovation to help grow the financial sector,” Ethel Cofie, CEO-Edel Technologies, said during the panel discussion.