The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Ghana (BOG) have announced its plan to adopt the Business sans Borders (BSB) open hub of platforms between Singapore and Ghana.
The collaboration is expected to benefit the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro SMEs (MSMEs) in both countries by expanding their connectivity with their counterpart economy, introducing innovative FinTech and digital tools to help SMEs in completing its everyday business needs. Both MAS and BOG will also join hands on a complementary Financial Trust Corridor (FTC) initiative to engender trust, trade and recognition between both countries’ businesses and financial institutions.
These initiatives are targeted to help the SMEs and MSMEs of Singapore and Ghana achieve sustainable growth for the post-COVID 19 pandemic recovery.
“We are excited to partner BOG to create the world’s first SME financial trust corridor as well as welcome Ghana into Business sans Borders, an innovative global infrastructure initiative. Together we can start to build increased trade flows and enhance financial trust and services support between our economies through both the FTC and BSB initiatives. Proxtera, a new private entity supported by MAS and IMDA, will help to operationalise BSB and the FTC. With time, these efforts will scale towards a new global paradigm where our SMEs and financial institutions are trusted internationally and have seamless access to wider financing, new trade opportunities and intuitive digital tools,” said Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS.
Launched by MAS and Infocomm Media Development Authority as a joint initiative, BSB aims to build global digital infrastructure for seamless trade and digital business services connectivity. The initiative will leverage AI to seamlessly integrate trade and business services discovery and flows, thereby facilitating commerce and exchange of best-in-class technologies and services.
The SME FTC, to be led by MAS and BOG, comprises a governance framework and a digital infrastructure which banks and FinTech companies in both countries could rely on and utilise when sharing critical information relevant for credit assessment, whilst abiding by domestic and international regulations, such as data protection and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.
“Indeed, we are glad to be a part of this partnership with MAS. The choice of Ghana is an absolute endorsement of how our technological capabilities are growing and will impact strongly on SMEs, in addition to building a robust, resilient and well-connected FinTech Hub,” said First Deputy Governor Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Bank of Ghana