The Chief Commercial Operations Officer of MobileMoney LTD, Abdul Razak Issaka Ali, has urged the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to embrace, rather than fear, financial technology (fintech) innovations, particularly in the area of cross-border payment solutions. Fintech, he said, holds enormous potential to drive inclusion and regional trade.
Mr Ali expressed frustration that Ghana’s efforts over the years to achieve seamless cross-border mobile money interoperability had still not been realised. According to him, despite years of conversations and pilot projects, the implementation of regulatory frameworks to support such initiatives remains slow and uncertain, leaving private-sector innovation “trapped in a loop of caution and bureaucracy.”
He was speaking at a high-level panel discussion on the theme “From Exclusion to Inclusion – DPI and Inclusive Development in Africa” during a conference organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on “Journalism and Digital Public Infrastructure.”
BrijX: A controlled fintech experiment
Mr Ali’s comments come against the backdrop of the Bank of Ghana’s ongoing sandbox programme, which includes a pilot by Brij Fintech Ghana, a licensed Payment Service Provider (PSP). The BrijX pilot, which began live testing in February 2025, is a Business-to-Business (B2B) Currency Swap Platform designed to facilitate direct currency swaps between the Ghanaian cedi and the Nigerian naira.
The system eliminates the need for forex markets or physical fund transfers across borders — a breakthrough that could significantly lower remittance costs and improve settlement efficiency between Ghana and Nigeria.
Approved in 2024, the pilot started with MoMo customers and is expected to expand to include G-Money users. BrijX operates as a digital marketplace, collaborating with banks, mobile money operators, and other licensed PSPs to enable peer-to-peer currency exchanges under regulated conditions.
“Government should not be scared to try new innovations within reasonable limits. The sandbox framework already allows for experimentation under supervision — so let’s move a little faster,” he said. He also cited PAPSS as another commendable innovation that needs to be embraced across markets and in other forms.
Mr Ali noted that while the government has been championing cross-border payment integration, the development of regulations to guide private-sector participation has become what he described as a “cat-and-mouse journey.”
He explained that there appears to be uncertainty over whether to move forward with cross-border mobile money solutions, largely due to perceived risks around capital flows, exchange rates, and potential misuse — concerns he acknowledged as understandable.
“It’s currently not clear whether government wants to move on with other cross-border innovations or not,” he lamented. “We need a clearer direction. The enabling environment must allow innovation within a controlled space to avoid chaos, not kill innovation entirely,” he said.
To ensure the pilot’s safety and integrity, the BoG has set transaction and participation limits, along with a defined testing period. The sandbox framework also incorporates Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, alongside consumer protection measures, to mitigate potential risks.
According to the Bank, these controls are essential to understanding how innovative fintech products behave under real-world conditions before they are rolled out on a national or regional scale. However, Mr Ali believes that the existence of such safeguards should give regulators more confidence to accelerate progress rather than slow it down.
“The sandbox was designed precisely to let us test, learn, and grow safely. We cannot keep staying in test mode forever,” he said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
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