Veep, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia
GOVERNMENT IS excited at the rate at which Ghanaians have embraced new technologies and innovations in the mobile phone and banking sectors.
Vice President Bawumia, who has been leading the country’s digitization agenda, made this known when he spoke at the maiden edition of the Mobile Technology for Development (MT4D) conference in Accra, Tuesday, under the theme, “Leveraging mobile technology to Drive Financial Inclusion.”
Speaking at the function, Dr Bawumia disclosed the findings of a recent research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank which had uncovered that advancing financial inclusion through electronic payment, deposits or insurance had positive effects on financial stability.
The research suggests that ignoring the link between financial inclusion and financial stability can result in costly financial crisis or continuing financial exclusion that will hold back growth.
That, he said was part of the reasons why government had advocated the use the mobile money platforms for financial inclusion.
He said this had become necessary because with a large number of people who were saving outside of the financial system, structurally, there would be limited amount of savings into the financial system.
So far, the Vice President indicated that Ghana was the only country in Africa that had interoperability between the mobile companies and the banks; and described it as real game changer.
That, according to him, meant anyone at all with a mobile wallet practically had a bank account since it did not only enable them to do banking transactions on their phones but also enabled them to access loans, receive interest on their transactions, make payments and receive money.
With over 15 million people having mobile money accounts, Dr Bawumia said that these people practically had bank accounts, an explanation he said some people did not appreciate when he stated that every Ghanaian would have a bank account when the interoperability process was completed.
He therefore advised Ghanaians to take advantage of the growing technological advancement in the telecommunications and banking sector to enhance their wellbeing whiles charging banks and mobile phone companies to continue to be more and more innovative with products for the ease of doing business.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent