(Ecofin Agency) - Since digital transformation is advancing in Africa, Ghanaian financial service providers want to leverage it to boost financial inclusion in an environment where most of the population is still unbanked.  

Last week, Ghana’s banking association GhIPSS launched GhanaPay, a mobile money service designed to accelerate financial inclusion in the country. According to the GhIPSS website, the mobile money service is provided by local “universal banks, rural banks, and savings and loans companies to individuals and businesses.”

It is open to anyone with access to a cell phone, with or without a traditional bank account. It works like the existing mobile money service, but also offers additional banking services, we learn.  According to Ghana's Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, this groundbreaking initiative will help achieve the government’s ambition to boost financial inclusion, for the unbanked population notably, with technologies. 

The launch of the service comes against a backdrop of accelerated digital transformation and "increased consumer preferences for convenient and frictionless payment options." According to Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, the volume of instant payment transactions has grown from 420,000 cedis (about US$52,800) in 2016 to 31.4 billion cedis in 2021. In addition, the ratio of currency in circulation as a proportion of GDP dropped from 6.8 percent in 2016 to 4.7 percent in 2021, while the cheque usage per capita fell from 25.67 in 2016 to 18.9 in 2021.

"By establishing this common GhanaPay mobile wallet, the cost of testing any new technology for each bank is reduced and allows new ways of doing business. Indeed, this is an exciting development for Ghana’s payment systems landscape and demonstrates how collaboration with the banking sector can proffer solutions for the transformation and deepening of the payments ecosystem,” Addison explains. 

Isaac K. Kassouwi