The Role of Artificial Intelligence in FinTech as a Catalyst of the Economic Growth Drive in Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of artificial intelligence of financial technology (FinTech), digitisation, and the growing influence of the fourth industrial revolution in Africa as a catalyst for economic growth. This study used a desktop literature review approach on the latest peer reviewed journal articles on how digitalisation is influenced by the fourth industrial revolution in Africa. The findings of the study confirmed that FinTech and digitalisation are the ongoing processes that is taking shape daily in in the African continent led by traditional financial institutions and new FinTech startup companies. This is disrupted by new players who are using FinTech to simplify the complexity of the banking system. This is fuelled by the newly available technologies that FinTech uses to provide better and speedier financial services. However, there is also a growing gap between the poor and the rich, as well as the extent to which the poor access and benefit from the quantum leap in FinTech due to technology inhibitors in Africa.