Kofi Bentil, IMANI Ghana
A lead researcher and Vice-President of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Kofi Bentil says he does not believe the country will experience a cashless economy anytime soon.
He said “efforts being made by Ghana towards a cashless economy will not materialize if illiterates who form the bulk of the informal sector are not given the opportunity to fully benefit.”
A cashless economy is an environment in which money is spent without being physically carried from one person to the other.
The advantages of a cashless economy are enormous; cost of transportation and the threat of carrying huge sums of money will possibly reduce.
According to Mr. Bentil, the various electronic payment platforms geared towards a cash-free society are not user friendly, therefore most rural folks who cannot read or write cannot access them.
He noted that “electronic payment systems that have been introduced do not suite our particular context because majority of the informal sector cannot access or use the platform.
“And if this is not critically looked at, at best we will end up with a cashless society for a certain segment of our population in certain towns and forget about the villages.”
Mr. Bentil disclosed this at the MTN Mobile Money roundtable discussion in Accra.
The programme, which forms part of activities to mark the MTN Mobile Money Month celebrations, was on the theme: “towards building a cashless economy in Ghana – prospects, challenges and way forward.”
He emphasized that “all the electronic platforms including the mobile money service, which have been introduced require pre-registration which is necessary probably because of regulations but the point is that these also constitute the bottlenecks which make it impossible for us to have a truly cashless society.”
He said the way forward is to create a versatile form of electronic platform which will be convenient to use.
“The electronic platforms must be a truly more convenient than cash, until that happens people will continue to rely on cash,” Mr. Bentil indicated.
Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Edward Effah also called for appropriate policy and regulatory frameworks which will strongly support the drive towards a cashless economy via mobile money.
“Central Bank must review regulatory policies that will aggressively promote mobile money to as many people as possible,” he stated.
Ebenezer Asante, MTN Sales and Distribution Executive, in his presentation, indicated that “Mobile money services have transformed the way in which people handle their finances, allowing people to transfer money, make purchase and pay bills with a few key strokes on their mobile phones.”
He added that the service had given millions of unbanked Ghanaians access to banking services and improved the banking culture of both urban and rural population.
He noted that with the right infrastructure, policy, security and cultural resistance and education, Ghana’s drive towards a cashless economy would be feasible.
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