Ghana’s financial inclusion rate has reached 81 percent, driven primarily by mobile money agent networks and basic phone-based transactions, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) disclosed at the 2026 3i Africa Summit in Accra on Friday.
Mrs Matilda Asante Asiedu, Second Deputy Governor of the BoG, cited World Bank data in making the announcement, describing the milestone as evidence that large-scale financial inclusion can be achieved without relying on smartphones or internet connectivity.
“Trust is at the heart of any financial transaction,” Asiedu said, emphasising that inclusive system design, rather than high-end technology, underpins Ghana’s progress.
The country’s model centres on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) technology, which enables users to send and receive money using any basic mobile phone without a data plan, internet connection or application. Asiedu noted that this approach has brought formal financial services, including payments, savings and insurance products, to millions of previously excluded Ghanaians.
She identified three key drivers behind Ghana’s success: the use of basic mobile networks for transactions, the nationwide expansion of mobile money agent networks providing physical cash access points, and interoperability among mobile money platforms, which has created a unified payments ecosystem.
Addressing the broader continental picture, Asiedu urged African policymakers to prioritise infrastructure tailored to local realities rather than importing models dependent on high-end devices and constant internet access. She called for predictable payment systems, clear regulatory frameworks and robust consumer protection to attract investment into Africa’s digital economy.
She stressed that Africa’s digital financial future required deeper cross-border system integration to unlock meaningful scale and efficiency, and challenged policymakers to shift their energy from drafting policy to executing it.
