Mobile wallets are widely considered a go-to tool in the Western world. In the rest of the world, things are a bit different. The Bank of Ghana rolled out its mobile wallet – dubbed GhanaPay – just last week.
GhanaPay Has Arrived
It is good to see financial innovation in African countries. As mobile device penetration and internet connectivity improve, it makes sense to begin exploring new opportunities in the mobile space. Bank of Ghana acknowledges it is time to roll out a common wallet solution for the local financial services sector.
Dubbed as GhanaPay, the wallet will be made accessible to banks, savings and loans companies, and community and rural lenders. It is a first step toward creating a more interconnected industry where resources are pooled together. Moreover, the mobile wallet will enable faster and cheaper development and testing of financial technologies.
Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison comments:
“The introduction of GhanaPay complements the measures to accelerate Ghana’s migration to electronic payments and we encourage the banking sector to collaborate and further explore more pioneering ways to attain greater efficiency in the payments ecosystem.”
The current bank-centric model in Ghana poses opportunities but also bottlenecks. GhanaPay aims to solve those challenges and provide an open application leveraging the network infrastructure for the broader banking industry. However, there are no plans on issuing this wallet – or a solution based on it – to the average consumer.