Ghana’s Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has reaffirmed the country’s commitment to strengthening intra-African digital partnerships, as Zambia’s Minister for Technology and Science, Felix C. Mutati, arrived in Accra with a delegation of 16 fintech companies to deepen a bilateral technology relationship initiated earlier this year.
Mutati credited George directly for the visit, saying his decision to travel to Ghana with the delegation was a direct result of the impact the Ghanaian minister made during an earlier engagement in Lusaka. “When you engage and learn from each other, you begin to deliver the best in transactions and investments. You begin to connect Africa to Africa,” he said during a joint media appearance on Citi FM.
George had earlier led a delegation of 12 Ghanaian tech companies to Zambia, specialising in agri-tech, education, fintech and health, to forge real-world business partnerships with Zambian firms. The Zambian delegation’s visit to Accra is the reciprocal leg of that exchange.
Speaking during the joint Citi FM session, George described the partnership as a model for South-South cooperation. He emphasised that the engagement goes beyond aid, focusing instead on mutual investment and the exchange of ideas. “African problems must be solved with African solutions. Even in areas where we appear more advanced, we are learning valuable lessons from Zambia,” he said, pointing specifically to Zambia’s community-based financial inclusion models and its advancements in energy efficiency as areas of interest for Ghana.
Mutati, for his part, acknowledged the value of Ghana’s progress in digital infrastructure. “We are moving from systems to platforms, and Ghana’s experience in digital ID and fintech provides a strong foundation for that transition,” he said, adding that Zambia intends to strengthen its foundational digital systems to better support innovation and digital transactions.
The Zambian minister described Mutati’s visit as a personal as well as professional experience, noting that family ties had deepened his connection to Ghana, and that the visit felt like “coming home.” He also reflected on how President Mahama’s earlier visit to Zambia had sparked widespread interest in traditional Ghanaian attire, particularly the fugu, which he said has since gained recognition beyond Ghana’s borders.
A key outcome the two ministers are working toward is the mutual recognition of fintech licenses between the two countries, which would allow payment service providers licensed in one country to operate in the other without applying for a separate licence. Both sides also highlighted the importance of enabling direct remittances and digital transactions between African countries without routing payments through intermediary banks outside the continent.
George has framed the Zambia partnership as part of a wider continental strategy. Since Zambia’s financial sector regulations were benchmarked on the Bank of Ghana’s regulatory framework, he has argued it creates a natural pathway for license recognition between the two countries, and by extension to neighbouring markets such as Malawi and beyond.
