Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George challenged banks to abandon conventional lending models for technology startups, arguing that Ghana’s digital economy needs financing built around the pace at which tech businesses actually grow.
Speaking at the launch of the Momo FinTech Lab, George said standard financing terms don’t fit startups that need time to build, test and refine products before they can generate revenue. “You can’t be treating tech startups the way you treat an industrial business. Because it needs patient capital,” he said. He argued Ghana has no shortage of ideas or talent, but lacks reliable bridges connecting founders to the capital needed to scale them.
George urged investors to engage with startups throughout the incubation process rather than waiting for the program’s national Demo Day to look for opportunities, warning that viable ideas can collapse when founders can’t secure funding after building a working prototype. “Capital is required for scale. And scale is what brings the return,” he said.
He framed fintech as no longer a niche sector but core economic infrastructure, pointing to mobile phones functioning as bank branches and payment terminals for millions of Ghanaians who previously had limited access to formal financial services. Startups coming out of the lab, he said, will need bank accounts, capital, API access and settlement infrastructure, alongside the patience to let their businesses mature. “This calls for partnership, not gatekeeping,” he said, calling on banks to engage directly with innovators and understand the business models behind emerging technologies before dismissing them as unbankable.
George said the goal extends beyond individual startups to building Ghanaian-owned platforms and intellectual property capable of competing across Africa and globally, and encouraged young Ghanaians to treat local problems as business opportunities rather than waiting for foreign companies to solve them.
