World Trade Centre Accra (WTC Accra) and Silent Eight have announced a partnership to enhance the capacity of governments and the financial services industry in Africa.

The collaboration with the global RegTech firm with offices in Singapore, London, New York and Warsaw is to combat the “three ills” of international financial crime, cyber fraud and money laundering.

To kickstart the partnership, the two firms in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana will hold a webinar on the August 27, under the topic: 'New Solutions for Combatting International Financial Crime, Cyber fraud and Money Laundering.'

The webinar will examine the peculiar challenges faced by the African financial system and serve as an exposition of new digital solutions for fighting international financial crime, cyber fraud and money laundering.

The webinar will be moderated by Scott McCleskey (Former Chief Compliance Officer, Moody’s) with a global knowledge bank to include Marcus Swanepoel (Manager- Business Solutions, Temenos Middle East & Africa) and Matthew Leaney (CRO, Silent Eight) and a local faculty to be made up of Sampson Akligoh (Director of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance Ghana), Edem Yevutsey (Executive Director, World Trade Centre Accra) and George Nkrumah (Head, Financial Integrity Office, Bank of Ghana).

According to Edem Yevutsey; “The global financial system can be likened to a chain which is only as strong as its weakest link”. Africa has become the next economic frontier of an increasingly integrated world with 6 of the top 10 fastest growing global economies.

 He further stated that; “The increasing prominence of African economies and their integration into all facets of the global financial system mean that if African countries are not adequately prepared to deal with some of the challenges facing the global financial system, they could become the link that weakens the entire system”.

The webinar will demonstrate how some of the latest innovation and technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science and machine learning can be employed to deal with the challenge of tackling these “three ills”.