The Ministry of Finance has launched three policy initiatives designed to deepen financial inclusion and accelerate the shift to digital payments. As part of the launch, the Ministry presented the government’s vision of building a highly digitized payment system that accelerates economic development and drives inclusive growth.
The National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy, developed in collaboration with the World Bank, aims at increasing financial inclusion from currently 58 percent to 85 percent by 2023, helping create economic opportunities and reducing poverty.
The Digital Financial Services Policy, developed in partnership with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), builds on existing technological gains to create a resilient, inclusive and innovative digital ecosystem that contributes to social development, a robust economy and a thriving private sector.
The Cash-Lite Roadmap, designed in collaboration with the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance, puts forward concrete steps to build an inclusive digital payments ecosystem. This includes better access to financial services, enabling regulation and oversight, and promoting consumer protection.
As part of these policy efforts, the government has set up a new Digital Payments Coordination Unit to drive effective stakeholder engagement on the implementation of key actions.
The launch conforms to the call by the Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on financial institutions, telecommunications and fintech sectors to find innovative ways of turning mobile phones and the mobile money platforms into vehicles of economic emancipation for the many players in the large informal sector. He made this statement during the launch of QRPay and Proxypay by the Bank of Ghana in March, 2020.
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