Ghana and Zambia are moving beyond bilateral goodwill into concrete regulatory action, with ministers from both countries signalling plans to allow fintech firms licensed in one country to operate in the other without restarting the approval process from scratch.
Speaking jointly on Citi FM in Accra, Ghana’s Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, and Zambia’s Minister of Technology and Science, Felix Mutati, outlined the framework under discussion, including mutual licence recognition and direct cross-border payment corridors that bypass European and American intermediary banks.
“Can Ghana recognise the licences issued by the Central Bank of Zambia? And can Zambia recognise the licences issued by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) so that it makes it easy for our businesses?” George said, framing the passporting question as central to making the partnership commercially meaningful.
Zambia’s 16-firm delegation arrives in Accra
The discussions come as Zambia brings a delegation of 16 fintech firms and innovators to Ghana for a week-long visit focused on identifying partnership and scaling opportunities. The trip is a reciprocal move. Earlier this year, a Ghanaian delegation travelled to Zambia with President John Dramani Mahama and returned with an estimated $60 million in business deals concluded within three days.
Mutati said his decision to lead the delegation to Accra was directly shaped by the impression Ghana’s minister made during that Zambia visit. “I’ve come here with a delegation because of the impact Sam George created when he came into Zambia,” he told Citi FM. “When you engage and learn from each other, you begin to deliver the best in transactions and investments.”
Each country learning from the other
The exchange is structured as a genuine two-way arrangement, with each side bringing something the other lacks. Zambia is seeking to learn from Ghana’s advances in digital identity infrastructure and payment platforms, with Mutati saying Zambia wants to move away from standalone systems toward integrated platforms. “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.
Ghana, in turn, is looking at Zambia’s rural and village-level financial inclusion models, which channel funds directly to farmers and informal economies. George said adapting those approaches could strengthen Ghana’s social intervention programmes and reduce disbursement inefficiencies. “If we can adopt these technological platforms that they use to do their local village financial inclusion into our system, it makes our system even better and more robust,” he said.
Removing the Europe detour from African payments
A practical target of the engagement is eliminating the routing of Ghana-Zambia transactions through correspondent banks in Europe or the United States, a system that adds cost and delays to cross-border trade. Both ministers expressed support for direct remittance flows as a way to support intra-African commerce.
George argued that structural similarities between African economies make home-grown solutions more effective than imported ones. “African problems need to be solved in an African nuance,” he said.
Zambia also views Ghana as a strategic entry point into West Africa, while positioning itself as a hub within Southern Africa. Mutati said the goal for participating firms is tangible commercial outcomes, not a tour. “They shouldn’t come here to tour and see… but much more crucial is that they build their enterprises to be bigger than when they came,” he said.
The visit forms part of a broader programme announced by Ghana’s Communications Ministry that includes cybersecurity alignment, ecosystem integration, and business-to-business pairing sessions between Ghanaian and Zambian technology firms.
