26th swift african regional conference welcome address dr. ernest addison governor, bank of ghana kempinski hotel, gold coast city in accra, june 18, 2019 your excellency, president nana addo dankwa akufoaddo, honourable ministers, directors and management of swift, ceos of financial institutions, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 1. it is an honour for me to officially welcome you all to accra and the 26th society for worldwide interbank financial telecommunication ( swift ) africa regional conference. before i proceed any further, let me first say that we are privileged to have h. e. president nana addo dankwa akufoaddo to grace the occasion. your excellency, we very much appreciate taking time off your busy schedule to join us today. 2. let me also thank the management of swift for choosing ghana to host this year ’ s session which has brought together more than 500 professionals from over 45 countries across africa and beyond, including policy makers, industry leaders and fintechs to meet and shape market practices in africa ’ s financial services sector. 3. your excellency, digital innovation is creating unprecedented opportunities for africa to grow its economy, create jobs and transform people ’ s lives. new technologies and business models are opening alternative pathways to economic growth in emerging markets, offering opportunities to reshape our lives and improve economic growth. in this regard, i believe the chosen theme ; ‘ enabling the digital economy ’ is most appropriate and timely. 4. ladies and gentlemen, the government of ghana ’ s commitment to formalize the ghanaian economy through digitisation is laudable. digitisation is a key component of the “ ghana beyond aid agenda ” which is firmly anchored in leveraging technology to promote economic efficiency and inclusiveness for accelerated development and poverty reduction. indeed, the president has shown keen interest and remains committed to building an inclusive modern society. this drive has seen the roll - out of several digital initiatives such as, the digital property addressing system, the national biometric id cards which will be linked to government agencies to help ease identification processes and promote integrity and efficiency in business transactions. 5. also, to enhance the ease of doing business in ghana, the government has introduced several other digital initiatives such as the paperless port operations to ensure smooth operations at the ports, and the e - justice project or the paperless courts, which seeks to automate existing manual filing systems in the court ’ s registry and improve efficiency of the justice

paper 11856, 2005. although the key interest rate of the central bank has been raised from 1. 00 % in 2004 to 4. 75 % at present ( i. e. by 3. 75 percentage points ), long - term interest rates, which are more important from the aggregate demand perspective, have remained roughly unchanged 18. as a result, the effect of tightening the monetary policy on the aggregate demand has been significantly contained due to lack of response from long - term interest rates. in the world of global financial markets nobody seems to be surprised by the fact that during the session of the federal open market committee ( fomc 19 ) of the american federal reserve, the eyes of the entire financial market are fixed on its chairman. why is that? decisions made by the fomc in washington are equally as important for investors in new york as those in london, tokyo, rio de janeiro, shanghai or even warsaw. not only do the fomc decisions influence us economy, but also - via the financial markets channel - the entire global economy. an unexpected increase in interest rates in the usa may bring about a sudden outflow of capital from the emerging markets, and thus weaken the currencies of those countries and increase their bond yields. some economists 20 make the point that an important aspect of the growing internationalisation of financial markets is increased discipline, which is extorted by investors on governments and central banks in individual countries. according to this hypothesis, the financial markets, through their continuous valuation of securities, duly reward good and punish bad economic policies. however, the empirical results do not provide hard evidence to support the thesis on fiscal policy discipline. it may be stated, on the other hand, that financial globalisation may have contributed to the discipline of central banks and to “ forcing ” them to conduct a monetary policy focused on low and stable inflation 21. at the same time, a significant risk related to the financial markets integration is the possibility to shift economic problems of one country upon other countries, which is greater than before ( the contagion effect ). between 1997 and 1998, countries of south - east asia experienced this effect, when all of a sudden capital flew out, bringing about financial crisis in economy after economy, which could not be prevented by either the monetary or exchange rate policy. re 4 ) one of the vital dimensions of globalisation is the fast spreading of knowledge, technology and knowhow. the flow of know - how also applies to the public sector, including