Business News of Thursday, 21 February 2019

Source: Francis Tawiah

Implement a continental strategy on technology – Fidelity Bank MD

Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Julian Opuni Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Julian Opuni

The Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Julian Opuni, has suggested the need for Africa to develop and implement a strategy on technology, which will positively impact development of the continent.

“Africa must implement a continental strategy with regards to technology which will help drive collaboration, transfer of technology and ideas to impact on the continent as a whole,” he stated.

According to him, in Africa, technology is confronted by some challenges, not only in terms of long-term development and prosperity but also the strategic orientation of Africans.

“Connectivity, literacy, and cost of mobile phones are some of the challenges with technology in Africa,” he added.

Speaking as a keynote speaker at the launch of the 4th Ghana CEOs Summit in Accra, Mr. Opuni said, Fidelity Bank has embraced technology in its daily business transactions like the Fidelity Mobile App, Fidelity QR Code Service, known as the F-Pay, etc. which are yielding very good results for the bank. He continued that businesses must use technology to understand what the customer wants in order to deliver value-added products and services.

In his submission, the CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Council, Mr. Yoofi Grant, indicated that mobile money transactions reaching about 50 Billion Cedis last year is an indication that Ghanaians were embracing technology for which reason efforts are being made by government to formalize the economy.

Founder of the CEO Summit, Ernest De-Graft Egyir, indicated that the choice of technology as the theme for this year’s summit is due to the rapid changes in technology and the prospect it has created for economic growth.

He said about 400 top CEOs whose companies’ turnover is more than GHC20million will be attending this year’s event.

The CEO Summit is an annual gathering of CEOs to discuss diverse issues. This year’s edition is dubbed, “The Futuristic Economy: technology-driven future business and governance for economic transformation.” It is slated for May 20 and 21, 2019, in Accra with about 500 CEOs expected to attend.