West African Monetary Institute & EMTECH partner to enhance FinTech regulations

By Delisha Fernandes

The West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) and EMTECH announced a strategic partnership to modernise country-level and regional regulatory sandboxes, enabling the harmonisation of heterogeneous FinTech regulatory policies and frameworks across the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ).

The collaboration aims at strengthening financial integration across the WAMZ member states. It showcases regulatory innovation, shares insights from global and regional regulatory sandbox benchmarking, onboarding a cohort of WAMZ regulatory sandboxes to conduct rapid pilots, and promotes value.

Additionally, the partnership will involve publishing research and case studies, as well as capacity-building programs and thought-leadership workshops.

Olorunsola E. Olowofeso, Director General of the West African Monetary Institute, said, “Our collaboration with EMTECH marks a new chapter in our commitment to creating a unified financial landscape in the WAMZ and signifies a critical step towards achieving a more integrated and technologically advanced financial ecosystem in West Africa. We look forward to this partnership’s positive impact on our member states and the broader West African region.”

Carmelle Cadet, Founder and CEO of EMTECH, said, “The collaboration between EMTECH and WAMI aligns with our mission of making financial markets inclusive and resilient for everyone by modernising central banking infrastructure.”

Cadet added, “We are eager to work with WAMI to deploy solutions addressing local and regional FinTech innovation and regulatory frameworks in the West African Monetary Zone. As many countries are developing FinTech regulatory frameworks, a regulatory sandbox is a powerful tool to support safe innovations and capitalise on investment opportunities and economic growth. By joining efforts with WAMI, we are committed to working closely with all 6 member states and supporting them along this new journey of modern central banking in Africa.”

EMTECH is a modern central bank technology and services company offering an integrated SaaS platform with products such as the Digital Regulatory Sandbox and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).