Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Johnson Asiama, says emerging economies such as Ghana are increasingly shaping the future of global financial systems rather than simply adopting frameworks from advanced markets.
Speaking at the ACI Financial Markets Association World Congress in Accra, Dr. Asiama said “the tools that are now reshaping global finance are no longer being built only in New York, London, or Frankfurt. Instant payments, digital sovereign currencies, virtual asset frameworks, AI-driven market intelligence, regional integration architectures: these are being built, and in some cases built first, in places like Accra, Nairobi, São Paulo, and Mumbai.
The Governor linked Ghana’s growing role in financial innovation to the country’s improving macroeconomic conditions.
He noted that inflation has declined sharply from 54.1% in December 2022 to 3.4% in April 2026, while gross international reserves have risen above $13.9 billion, providing more than five months of import cover.
“Macroeconomic stability is not only good for financial market development,” Dr, Asiama said. “It is the infrastructure on which financial market development becomes possible.”
Dr. Asiama also highlighted progress on Ghana’s digital finance agenda, including the pilot phase of the e-Cedi and the implementation of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act passed in 2025.
He stressed that stronger regional integration, harmonised payment systems and coordinated regulation will be critical for African financial markets to remain globally competitive.
“The Bank is deepening collaboration with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ghana Stock Exchange on cross-sector oversight.”
Dr Asiama closed with a direct question to delegates: whether participants in the Congress were building financial systems that would “keep up with the change ahead, or systems that will shape it.”
The two-day Congress was hosted at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel brought together central bank governors, financial-market professionals and regulators from across Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia
