Challenge

Financial inclusion and cash reliance, a challenge in Ghana. Historically, Ghana has been characterized by low levels of financial inclusion. In 2011, only 29% of the population owned a bank account at a formal financial institution or mobile money provider, and bank branch coverage was 4.8 branches per 100,000 adults in Ghana (World Bank, 2021a). In 2005, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) identified key constraints that needed to be addressed to improve inclusion. The first was that banking services were considered relatively exclusive and inaccessible: most banks were only present in three of the 16 regions within Ghana, banking services were not available 24/7, and electronic payments were only available in areas with stable electricity supplies (Stakeholder interviews, 2022). Secondly, the Ghanaian economy relied heavily on cash as a medium of exchange (Boeteng, 2020).

Such reliance resulted in undesirable outcomes for the Ghanaian economy, including the loss of audit trails, high costs, and increased risks of theft (Stakeholder interviews, 2022).

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