Promoting Financial Inclusion

We face a major problem of very few people having access to and financial services. To solve this problem, I championed the implementation of Mobile money interoperability (MMI). MMI has made it possible to transfer money seamlessly across different mobile money providers and between bank accounts and mobile wallets.

Today, because of mobile money interoperability (MMI), you can transfer money from a customer of one mobile money service provider to a customer of a different mobile money service provider and also make payments from your mobile money account into any bank account and you can receive payments from any bank account into your mobile money account. This can be done 24 hours a day!

Apart from achieving financial inclusion, , MMI has also significantly promoted a cashless culture, especially by our market women and the business community, thus reducing robberies and attacks of market women and business folks on our highways. Robbers used to attack vehicles carrying traders, knowing they were carrying cash, but now, many traders don’t carry cash, because they keep their monies on their mobile wallets for seamless transactions wherever they are.

You can also receive remittances from abroad directly onto your mobile phone without the need to go to a bank or Western Union Money Transfer. Because the mobile money account performs just like a bank account, as a result of MMI, over 90% of Ghanaian adults have mobile money accounts that function like bank accounts. We have basically solved the problem of financial exclusion in Ghana. The State of Inclusive Instant Payment Report has ranked Ghana as number one in Africa in terms of access to financial inclusion! Ghana has 100% access to financial inclusion! Today because of digitalization anyone can do banking and digital financial transactions 24 hours a day!

The data shows that at the end of 2016, total cumulative value of mobile money transactions was GHC 78.5 billion. Following MMI, the total cumulative value of mobile money transactions has increased to over GHC 1.9 trillion at the end of 2023. Therefore, between 2016 and 2023, following MMI, momo transactions have increased by 2,335%! (a 23-fold increase!). This is why Ghana continues to be the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa.

The digital payments infrastructure is boosting e-commerce in Ghana. Businesses are booming over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Many people who cannot afford to rent or build shops are able to do business on the internet at little cost with deliveries helped by digital address and payments using mobile money interoperability. This can be done 24 hours a day! Ghana is currently ranked number 6 in Africa in terms of e-commerce after Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco according to UNCTAD.