The Finance Sector Takes Interest
Minister Minette Libom Li Likeng Co-presided the first edition of the Scientific Days of the National Economic and Financial Committee alongside the Minister of Finance placed under the theme: “Transformation of the Financial System through Digital Innovations: Stakes and Perspectives for Cameroon”, on Wednesday 5th June 2024, at the Mont Fébé Hotel in Yaounde.
“Cameroon does not want to be left behind. By emphasizing the digital transition of the national monetary sector, the government wishes to align it with the radical evolution of the global financial industry,” this was the backing, pronounced by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, to prove Cameroons willingness in ameliorating on its finance sector across digital technologies.
This happened while co-presiding over the first edition of the scientific Days of the National Economic and Financial Committee alongside the Minister of Finance, Louis-Paul Motazé, on Wednesday 5th June 2024, at the Mont Fébé Hotel in Yaounde, placed under the theme: “Transformation of the Financial System through Digital Innovations: Stakes and Perspectives for Cameroon”,
According to Minette Libom Li Likeng, the digital economy is no longer an emerging trend but an essential reality that is shaping the new global architecture of business, finance and beyond with an increasing interconnection between technology and financial service, driven by significant advancements in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data and block chain.
In line with this, the Minister outlined two significant advancements in this field being Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied in the financial sector for risk management, fraud detection, analyze large volumes of data to provide accurate predictions and Open Banking used to drive innovation and enhance user experience.
Noting the transversal nature of digital technology and its capability in boosting the national economy particularly through finance, the Minister elaborated on the role of the three main pillars in the national strategy put in place to ensure the successful integration of technologies, which are; the development of infrastructure, the development of a local digital industry through the promotion of digital entrepreneurship and training as well as the strengthening of governance and regulation.
Outlining the efforts put in by government to keep this sector in check particularly with the rapid evolution of technology such as AI, MINPOSTEL believes that securing financial data has become primordial especially at a time when cyber attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated. “There is therefore need to reinforce inter-sectarial regulations in a bid to gain local and international trust in Cameroon digital financial ecosystem as well as respond to the modern exigencies for modern economy through sensitization, capacity building of local actors, constant monitoring of the regulation to adapt to the fast changing times to reflect the current markets and guarantee a risk free environment for innovation.” She added
Speaking at the event, Minister Louis-Paul Motazé revealed that according to the World Bank, digital economy contributes close to 20% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To him, the contribution of digital economy to the Cameroon’s GDP is modest because according to MIPOSTEL, it stands slightly above 5%. Also, according to the World Bank, only 35% of adults possess bank accounts in financial institutions against an average of 43% in Sub-Saharan Africa and just 11% of adults have access to saving accounts in formal financial institutions against 27% in Sub-Sahara Africa.
“This is justified by the insufficiencies in qualitative and quantitative infrastructure and human capital, the socio-economic and cultural barriers limiting the access and familiarization to financial digital services thereby widening the digital divide to some segment of the population notably women and rural areas,” said the MINFI.
He further said that, despite the plus of digital technology, it is important to underscore its downside stating that such opportunities give room for new risks such as identity theft, hacking of bank and electronic accounts which of course need to be identified and prevented.
He therefore charged the experts and participants to exhaustively identify the risks and emit solutions to benefit from AI and suggest government’s contributions in terms of regulation and technology.
Worth mentioning is the fact that, the meeting has as objective to identify ways to ameliorate the digital economic sector for the development of Cameroon most especially in its finance sector according to the digital roadmap traced and implemented through the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. To meet this goal, five workshops will animate this first edition under the topics; risks and opportunities presented by AI in the finance sector: consideration for Cameroon, regulation and risk management and fake financial practices, the role of technology payment in the amelioration of the global productivity of factors of production, Open Banking: perspective for the Cameroonian finance system and recent reforms, gender digital divide and financial inclusion.
