The Chief Executive Officer of MobileMoney FinTech Limited (MMFL), Shaibu Haruna, has outlined five major technological innovations expected to reshape Ghana’s financial technology industry over the next 12 to 24 months, with artificial intelligence, digital assets and instant payment systems emerging as key drivers of growth.

He identified artificial intelligence (AI), open finance, embedded finance, digital assets and instant payment rails as critical developments that could revolutionise financial service delivery, strengthen fraud prevention, deepen financial inclusion and unlock new investment opportunities for millions of Ghanaians.

Speaking at an engagement with business editors in Accra on Friday, Mr Haruna said the rapid evolution of financial technology presented enormous opportunities for Ghana to accelerate its digital economy, but warned that the industry must address emerging risks, particularly fraud, cybersecurity threats and gaps in consumer protection.

According to him, the next phase of Ghana’s FinTech transformation would depend on how effectively financial institutions, technology providers and regulators collaborate to build secure, accessible and innovative financial systems.

AI Must Be Deployed to Fight Financial Fraud

Mr Haruna expressed concern about the increasing use of artificial intelligence by fraudsters, stressing that financial institutions must deploy equally sophisticated technologies to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions.

He explained that AI-powered systems could significantly improve real-time fraud monitoring, identify suspicious transaction patterns and enable financial service providers to respond proactively to emerging threats.

“I think AI against fraud. AI is working for fraud, but we can also flip it over in terms of using AI to manage real-time management of fraud and be very proactive in quickly addressing some of the fraud elements that come through,” he said.

He emphasised that fighting digital financial fraud required stronger collaboration across banking, mobile money and other payment platforms, particularly as criminals increasingly exploited weaknesses between different financial ecosystems.

According to him, fraudsters could initiate transactions on one platform and rapidly transfer the proceeds through multiple financial networks, making isolated security systems less effective.

He therefore advocated interconnected fraud monitoring mechanisms that would enable financial institutions to exchange relevant information and identify suspicious activities in real time.

“But it requires inter-organizational interplay to allow this to happen on a real-time basis because you can do a lot within your ecosystem, but the way it evolves is that you require others to have a central control system where platforms are talking to each other to understand their flows,” he explained.

Mr Haruna maintained that coordinated technological responses would be critical to protecting customers, reducing financial losses and strengthening public confidence in digital payment systems.

Open Finance to Unlock Personalised Financial Services

Turning to open finance, the MobileMoney FinTech CEO said Ghana had an opportunity to move beyond traditional open banking arrangements towards a broader financial ecosystem that allowed the responsible sharing of customer data across multiple sectors.

He explained that while open banking primarily focused on financial information held by banks, open finance could incorporate additional customer data, including utility payments and other financial activities, subject to customer consent.

“I think in Ghana we’re talking about open banking, but there’s a potential to scale up to open finance. The difference is really about the extent to which data can be harvested from multiple sources, even outside of the banking sector, including bills and et cetera,” he stated.

According to him, access to consented customer data could enable financial technology companies to design products that better reflected individual financial circumstances and spending patterns.

He said such innovations could improve access to financial services and create more responsive products capable of supporting the financial well-being of consumers.

Embedded Finance to Make Insurance, Savings and Investments More Accessible

Mr Haruna also identified embedded finance as a major innovation capable of transforming how Ghanaians access financial products.

He explained that integrating savings, insurance, credit and investment services into everyday commercial transactions could eliminate some of the barriers that discouraged consumers from using formal financial products.

“Embedded finance is going to be how we solve for adoption and deepening financial health. Embedded finance is about ensuring that a lot of the payments, credits, decision, insurance offerings are embedded in the daily transaction needs of our customers,” he said.

Illustrating the concept, he cited a situation in which a customer shopping at a retail outlet such as Melcom could automatically allocate a small portion of each purchase towards an investment or insurance product.

“So imagine a world where you go to a Melcom shop to buy, and you are able to decide that for every thousand cedis that you buy from Melcom, one cedi of it or two cedis of it goes into your investment. And maybe one cedi goes into an insurance offering,” he explained.

He said the approach could encourage consistent savings and insurance participation by incorporating financial products into transactions consumers already undertake.

According to him, such innovations could deepen financial inclusion while helping individuals gradually build savings and investment portfolios without the burden of separate payment processes.

Digital Assets Could Open Gold Investment to Ordinary Ghanaians

On digital assets, Mr Haruna described virtual assets as one of the most significant developments in the global FinTech industry, noting that emerging regulatory frameworks were creating opportunities for safer participation.

“This is an exciting area. This is an area which has moved. Regulation is catching up and providing the guardrails for us to be able to do it safely and with greater confidence,” he stated.

He identified stablecoins and asset tokenisation as innovations with the potential to transform payments and investment opportunities.

According to him, stablecoins could provide alternative digital means of exchange, while tokenisation could make traditionally expensive investment assets more accessible to ordinary consumers.

Using gold as an example, Mr Haruna noted that despite Ghana’s position as a major global gold producer, direct investment in the precious metal remained beyond the financial reach of many individuals.

He explained that tokenisation could allow investors to purchase fractional interests in gold using relatively small amounts of money.

“If you fractionalise gold and say you have like 10 Ghana cedi gold, somebody can decide to buy 10 cedis every day as their fraction that they want to invest in gold. And over time, they’ll be able to build their gold assets,” he said.

He maintained that such innovations could broaden investment participation and create opportunities for more Ghanaians to accumulate assets gradually.

Global Mobile Money Transactions Surpass US$2 Trillion

Providing an overview of the global mobile money industry, Mr Haruna disclosed that transaction values exceeded US$2 trillion in 2025, representing a 23 per cent increase over the previous year.

He said registered mobile money accounts worldwide reached 2.3 billion, with 268 million new accounts added during the year.

The number of accounts active within a 30-day period also increased by 15 per cent to 593 million.

Mr Haruna observed that the stronger growth in transaction value compared with transaction volume reflected the increasing importance of mobile money in everyday financial activities.

According to him, mobile wallets were evolving beyond basic money transfer services into broader financial platforms supporting payments, savings, investments and other financial transactions.

He said the development underscored the growing role of mobile money in expanding access to financial services, particularly in emerging markets.

Ghana’s Mobile Money Transactions Hit GH¢3.37 Trillion

Turning to Ghana, Mr Haruna disclosed that Bank of Ghana data for August 2026 highlighted the remarkable expansion of mobile money services across the country.

He said the value of mobile money transactions had reached GH¢3.37 trillion, while monthly transaction volume crossed the one-billion mark for the first time, reaching 1.05 billion transactions in August alone.

Registered mobile money accounts stood at 85.8 million, with 26.4 million classified as active.

The number of active mobile money agents also increased significantly to 594,000, compared with 433,000 during the corresponding period in 2025.

Additionally, the total float held in mobile money accounts rose to GH¢39.8 billion, from GH¢28.4 billion a year earlier.

Mr Haruna said the figures demonstrated the increasing importance of mobile money as a major payment channel in Ghana’s financial system.

He noted that the expansion reflected growing consumer adoption and the integration of digital financial services into commercial and personal transactions.

Fraud, Dormant Accounts and Gender Gap Threaten Growth

Despite the impressive growth, Mr Haruna cautioned that several structural challenges continued to threaten the long-term sustainability of the mobile money industry.

He identified financial fraud, account inactivity, transaction taxes, cross-border data restrictions and persistent gender disparities in financial inclusion as major concerns requiring urgent attention.

He disclosed that nearly 75 per cent of registered mobile money accounts globally were not used within a given month, highlighting the challenge of converting account registration into sustained financial participation.

According to him, the industry must shift its focus beyond acquiring customers to developing services that encourage regular usage and deliver measurable financial benefits.

He also stressed the importance of interoperability, cross-border payment harmonisation and stronger digital public infrastructure in supporting the next phase of FinTech growth.

Mr Haruna said effective consumer protection and fraud prevention systems would be essential to maintaining public trust as digital financial services expanded.

He further noted that regulation was increasingly playing a constructive role in the industry’s development, with more than 60 per cent of providers indicating that interoperability and consumer protection requirements had positively supported their operations.

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The MobileMoney FinTech CEO maintained that the convergence of technology, regulation and collaboration would determine how effectively Ghana capitalised on emerging opportunities in the global digital financial ecosystem.

He stressed that the successful adoption of artificial intelligence, open finance, embedded finance, digital assets and instant payment systems could significantly expand access to financial services, create new investment opportunities and strengthen Ghana’s position in the evolving FinTech landscape.

However, he emphasised that innovation must be accompanied by effective regulation, stronger institutional cooperation and robust consumer protection to ensure that the benefits of digital financial transformation reached all segments of society.