On February 10, 2018, Ghana’s Minister of Finance, the Honorable Ken Ofori-Atta met with Mr. Peilung Li, Chairman of LUN Partners Group to assess the financial investment landscape between China and Africa, as well as future partnership opportunities with MFS Africa, a portfolio company of LUN Partners.
During the meeting, Minister Ofori-Atta introduced recent economic developments of Ghana and the country’s recent rise in becoming the 2nd largest economy in West Africa. The Minister also expressed his interest in creating a new economic movement with accelerated and improved international commerce, foreign investment, modernization, and industrialization. With China’s role as Ghana’s largest partner in trade and commerce and position as its largest foreign investor, the new economic movement is likely to include continued support and large contributions from leading foreign companies.
As for LUN Partner’s participation in the new economic movement, both sides discussed the importance for Ghana to adopt innovative financial technologies as a means of promoting economic growth, cross-border commerce, and foreign investment. In doing so, the country would be able to establish itself as a key financial center within West Africa.
Additionally, Mr. Li suggested that innovative financial technologies such as MFS Africa, the foremost mobile money connectivity hub, would greatly contribute to the growth and development of Ghana’s commercial ecosystem.
MFS Africa is LUN Partners Group’s first portfolio company in Africa. The Company’s mobile wallet network connects 170 million users and its platform’s convenience, efficiency, economical transfer fees, and broad set of applications greatly improve the scale and reliability of daily transactions and consumption for its clients.
In the future, Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and LUN Partners will seek to further realize China’s “One Belt One Road Initiative”; and from this partnership, the two parties will continue to support innovative financial technology companies within Africa in an effort to enhance future channels of commerce between their respective geographies.