Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Elsie Addo Awadzi has indicated that a lot has been done and is being done to scale up financial inclusion and access to finance in Ghana.
She said whether through the introduction of the post office bank system in the 1960s to provide banking services to the unbanked, the licensing regime for rural and
community banks in the 1970s to promote financial intermediation in the remotest
parts of the country, the introduction of the savings and loans sector in the 1990s and
the microfinance sector in the mid-2000s, the introduction of branchless banking and
mobile money, and more recently the licensing of Financial Technology firms (Fintechs)
to partner with banks and other financial institutions to help launch more innovative
digital financial services and payment platforms, financial services have over the years
been brought closer and closer to the doorstep of every Ghanaian and every business.
Mrs Addo Awadzi said this during the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER)-World Bank public engagement on 2021 Ghana Findex data and launch of ISSER inclusive finance development series on Thursday, May 4.
She added that in November 2019, the Bank of Ghana launched Ghana’s Sustainable
Banking Principles – a set of seven ESG–related principles, one of which principle
explicitly requires banks to promote more financial inclusion in the delivery of their
products and services to clients.
The Bank of Ghana’s investment in public goods such as mobile money interoperability infrastructure through its wholly-owned subsidiary Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) has gone a long way to support the immense in digital financial services we have witnessed in the last few years, she said.
What is more, the credit reporting system and the Collateral Registry system which are both regulated by the Bank of Ghana, help to promote more access to credit even for small borrowers.
“Evidently, a lot has been done and is being done to scale up financial inclusion and access to finance in Ghana. Outside the banking sector, the insurance, securities, and
pensions sectors, also help to promote much-needed financial services to economic
and financial resilience for economic actors