When: Monday, December 11, 2023, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PMWhere: Online via Zoom
Speaker: Ms. Elsie Addo Awadzi
The London Financial Regulation Seminar is an inter-collegiate and inter-disciplinary group of experts led by CCLS and our Institute of Banking and Finance under the leadership of Professor Rosa M. Lastra and Dr. Daniele D’Alvia.
On Monday 11 December 2023, Ms. Elsie Addo Awadzi discussed the changing African banking landscape. Prof. Lastra chaired the event.
Ms. Elsie Addo Awadzi is a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ghana (the Bank), having been appointed to the role in February 2018. Under the leadership of the Governor, she has oversight of the Central Bank of Ghana’s banking supervision, market conduct, and financial stability functions, among others. She is a member of the Bank’s Board of Directors, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, and a member of Ghana’s Financial Stability Council which has representation from financial regulatory authorities in Ghana and the Financial Ministry. She also oversees the Bank’s sustainable banking initiative and chairs the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s Gender Inclusive Finance Committee which provides through leadership and guidance to the 100-member AFI network on the design and implementation of measures to close the gender gap in access to finance in developing countries. Her career over the last 27 years has spanned law, finance, governance, policy and regulation.
The banking landscape in Africa is fast evolving, against the backdrop of competitive market forces, changing business models thanks to technology, increased levels of access to and usage of financial services, increased climate-related risks, relatively nascent capital markets, rising sovereign debt levels, and macroeconomic imbalances post covid-19 and amidst geopolitical tensions. While some of these dynamics present opportunities to help tackle long-standing development challenges in the region, there are also policy, regulatory, and supervisory challenges that emerge. Ms. Addo Awadzi shed light on these, after which a moderated discussion took place.