By Francis Ntow
Accra, May 7, GNA – The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has urged Africa to deepen its continental digital financial integration to unlock productivity, scale, and shared prosperity.
The Corporation noted that the continent’s digital finance ecosystem has reached a pivotal point where the challenge is no longer expanding access but achieving integration.
Ms Nathalie Kouassi-Akon, IFC’s Divisional Director for West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea region, made the remarks during a curtain raiser speech on day two of the 2026 3i Africa Summit in Accra, on Thursday.
The session on “Harnessing Continental Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Development” examined why Africa’s next growth phase requires moving beyond fragmented solutions toward integrated financial systems.
Speakers observed that aligning capital, platforms, and markets could enhance efficiency, support businesses at scale, and create meaningful employment.
Ms Kouassi-Akon emphasised that digital public infrastructure has become as foundational to economic competitiveness as roads and energy grids, urging collective action to resolve fragmentation.
She said, “When Ghana’s system connects seamlessly with those of its neighbours – when a young woman in Kumasi can use a digital identity to access credit and sell across borders and build system and business that employs all members in their community – that is when transformation becomes generational.”
Highlighting statistical realities, Ms Kouassi-Akon noted that while over 191 million people gained access to digital payments between 2014 and 2025, more than 60 per cent of those within broadband reach remain unconnected.
Africans also pay up to 35 per cent more for digital tools than counterparts elsewhere, a premium that effectively excludes the populations digital finance aims to serve.
“It is worrying that the continent’s payment networks do not always communicate with each other, data cannot move safely across borders, while small businesses struggle to operate beyond a single country.
“If Africa does not address this fragmentation, we risk scaling growth, releasing innovation without productivity, and access without prosperity,” she warned, calling integration the key economic shift for a continent-wide growth engine.
Ms Kouassi-Akon identified shared digital identity systems, interoperable payment frameworks, trusted data exchange mechanisms, and broadband connectivity as the essential infrastructure for cross-border trade, regional value chains, and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
She stressed the need for strong governance, data protection laws, cybersecurity standards, and accountability mechanisms to build trust among citizens, businesses, and investors.
Ms Kouassi-Akon also urged the private sector to participate not merely as vendors but as co-investors and co-builders of Africa’s digital infrastructure, citing shared models such as carrier-neutral broadband networks, independent tower companies, and shared data centres as cost-effective solutions.
She disclosed that the IFC has invested over US$9.6 billion in digital infrastructure over the past decade, supporting cloud computing, digital finance, and artificial intelligence across the region.
Ms Kouassi-Akon cited investment in a pan-African data centre platform expanding tier-three certified facilities in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
Referring to Ghana’s mobile money revolution, she highlighted it as an example of success when innovation, regulation, and infrastructure align, advocating for its replication continent-wide.
“The question before Africa is not whether its digital economy will grow – it will – but who builds it, who owns it, and who ultimately benefits from it,” she asked, concluding that with integration, the answer could be “Africa’s own people, enterprises, and continent.”
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Francis Ntow
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