Financial inclusion of rural households in the mobile money era: insights from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the financial inclusion prospects of mobile money by drawing on the experiences of rural households in the Sunyani West District of Ghana. By employing a qualitative approach, we argue that the suitability of mobile money to financial inclusion in rural areas has a checquered outlook. This is because although the platform ensures ease, nearness, and speedy transaction, digital illiteracy, irregular service delivery, and poor network connectivity question the goodness of fit between mobile money and the rural environment. While mobile money provided transfer and savings services, the persistence of these constraints negatively influenced these financial inclusion potentials.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• mobile money
• financial inclusion
• poverty reduction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A traditional means by which a person makes a daily contribution to another person (the Susu Collector) for an agreed period, usually a month.

2 The dollar equivalent is USD 80.5

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Serbeh

Richard Serbeh is a PhD student at the Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. His research interests include development economics, rural development, local governance and development, and migration and development.

Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei

Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has published extensively on poverty and health, rural development, decentralisation, and development.

David Forkuor

David Forkuor is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has published extensively on urban geography, poverty, and rural development.