World Bank says Ghana is the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa

According to the report, mobile phone penetration created opportunities for the expansion of financial services and increased the role of non-financial institutions as much as e-money issuers, positioning Ghana as the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa.

Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI) recorded more than 4.4 million transactions in its first year of operation.

Beginning with just 96,907 transactions in its first month, public usage of the cross-network platform grew phenomenally to 422,275 transactions in December last year and 502,873 transactions in May this year.

Recently, a report from the Payment Systems Department of the Bank of Ghana revealed that Ghanaians now rely more on the use of mobile money for remitting funds than cheques.

The World Bank’s report christened, “4th Ghana Economic Update”, which focuses on Financial Sector Development and Financial Inclusion stated that this dynamic development indicated the potential of digital financial services and payments to further enhance financial inclusion in Ghana.

The World Bank Country Director, Dr Henry Kerali who spoke at the launch of the report noted that Ghana’s economy has had a turnaround over the past two years.

He said it would be important to leverage the momentum that the fiscal responsibility law created and ensure that fiscal sustainability could be maintained across economic and political circles, saying, more domestic resource mobilisation would be key to this effort.

Dr Kerali added that Ghana’s Financial theme for the year being, “Enhancing Financial Inclusion” was timely, considering the many developments that occurred in Ghana’s financial sector over the past years and congratulated the government and the Bank of Ghana for taking courageous steps to address the various challenges faced by the financial sector.