#takeaways

After a long break, I would like to share some thoughts about the use of mobile money (digital wallets) as a means of financial inclusion. Honestly speaking, I did not know much about digital payment technologies until my first visit to Ghana. Once there, I had the chance to meet with the officials from the Central bank as well as various Mobile Money operators. After a few discussions, I became fascinated by these new technologies that help to bypass the shortcomings of poor financial development, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

In a nutshell, my point is the following: Mobile money technologies offer financial services to millions of un(der)banked individuals in poor areas!

If you are curious about the topic, here are some takeaways from our press article with Charlotte Beck : https://theconversation.com/how-ghana-is-acing-its-transition-to-mobile-financial-services-119625

• Technology (digital transformation), can help modernise the financial system and support greater financial inclusion of the poor.
• Mobile financial services are mostly used by those poorly served by the traditional financial sector, with 20% of digital-wallet users being previously unbanked in Ghana.
• The strong penetration rate of mobile phones (128% of the population in Ghana) make the widespread use of mobile-money services possible, particularly in rural areas.
• Importantly, in Ghana, mobile phone technologies offer access to financial services such as health insurance, mobile-based pension schemes and microcredit loans.
• Previously un(der)banked users  have now access to digital micro-loans (starting from $2) based on their mobile network data (instead of a traditional credit score). Let me explain how this works: a customer buying airtime regularly is likely to have a stable source of income. In the same way, calls to and from abroad should indicate a relatively high standard of living.  
• In Ghana, users now earn interest on their digital savings accounts (some of them for the first time in their lives). Total interest paid to holders of electronic money wallets reached $4.5 million in 2016.
• However, in an environment of low financial literacy, many Mobile Money consumers may fall victim to predatory practices. Thus, government authorities should commit to enhance the consumer-protection regulation and create a suitable working environment for innovation.

I hope you found this article helpful. Thanks for reading!

For my next blog posts, I plan to prepare some takeaways from the most popular @weloveeconomics Twitter posts. You can directly suggest me your topics of interest.

Selin