Improving financial access through digital banking

…a partnership between specialized deposit-taking institutions (Banks & NBFIs) and fintechs

By Joseph ADJEI                                                                                              

Financial inclusion simple refers to the availability of basic financial services to everyone in the society. Financial inclusion connotes making financial services very affordable and timeously accessible to  both businesses and individuals.  Basic financial services may include but not limited to banking transactions, payments, savings, insurance, loans, and investment, which businesses and individuals may access at their convenience.

According to the World Bank’s Consultative Group (CGAP), in seeking to assist the poor and vulnerable established that, only 58 percent of Ghana’s adult population had access to formal financial services in 2015.

In view of this, the government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with financial sector regulators and other key stakeholders, developed a National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy (NFIDS) to address the fundamental barriers preventing the underserved population from accessing financial products and services that would enable them to generate income, build assets, manage financial risks, and becoming economically empowered.

The NFIDS provides a prioritized and sequenced series of actions to promote broader access to affordable financial products and services. Also, it ultimately, sought to increase financial inclusion from 58 percent of Ghana’s adult population to 85 percent in the course of 2023.

It is important to note that, as reported in the first ever Ghana Financial Inclusion Report 2022, and as announced at the recently held Ghana Financial Inclusion Conference by the Ministry  of Finance, on the theme: “Accelerating Financial Inclusion in a Digital Era”, a recent Demand-side (End-Users) Survey report by the Ministry of Finance released in 2022, put  the financial inclusion figure at 96 percent ( this data includes active mobile money subscribers). This indeed is great achievement.

Improving financial access is one (1) of the five (5) pillars outlined in the National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy (NFIDS) to support government efforts at increasing the availability of a broad range of affordable and quality financial services to all Ghanaians.

As recommended in the Ghana Financial Inclusion Report 2022, access-enhancement to financial services could be achieved by collaborating with telecommunication companies to expand network coverage to rural communities. This will lead to the establishment of mobile banking units (agent points) or financial service points in remote regions to ensure broader coverage as well as improve accessibility to digital financial services.

Improving access to financial services could also be achieved through a partnership between banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions, and financial technology (fintech) companies. Fintech organizations have proven ability to drive financial inclusion in Ghana not only by enabling the introduction of new products and services, but also by allowing efficient delivery of traditional financial products such as savings, loan and remittances.

With the passage of the Payment System and Services Act 2019 (Act 987), which among other things has brought about the regulation and licensing of Fintech organization by the Bank of Ghana. It has also led to the  creation of the Fintech and Innovation Department at Bank of Ghana, which  has given an  opportunity for regulators to efficiently tackle challenges imposed by the increasing use of financial services, particularly the need to regulate and supervise a large and diversified number of financial services providers, to protect consumers, and to manage money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

Available data at both the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana shows that Ghana’s achievement so far in financial inclusion has been driven largely by fintech organizations with the delivery of traditional banking service using digital devices.

A deep and further partnership between banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions and fintech companies, would lead to increase in the availability of basic financial services to cater for the needs of the underserved segments of the Ghanaian population.

Fintech organizations have already made huge investments in infrastructure as well as the required expertise needed for the provision of digital financial services to customers of banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions.

The partnership will afford banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions the opportunity of focusing on their core functions which mainly includes but not limited to account creation, accepting deposits and lending, while the fintech organizations act as enablers of seamless transactions. The partnership will also be beneficial to banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions by reducing cost of introducing digital financial services as well as go-to market time with the development and implementation of digital financial services.

The collaboration between banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions and fintech companies could be established on a commission sharing of the fees that may be charged to customers based on the resources made available by each partner. These  include infrastructure, system and human resources on one part, then users (customers) who would access the service on another.

However, despite the various advantages the partnership presents, there could be other challenges the banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions as well as the fintech organizations may have to be concerned about. Issues about cybersecurity, fraud, treats, data and privacy breach, consumer protection among others.

The relationship must pay detailed attention to the issues raised above and must include specific provisions in the various agreements between the parties to address such issues when they arise.

In conclusion, improving financial accessibility through a partnership between banks and fintech organizations is a sure way of speeding up financial inclusion to the underserved segments of our population by offering affordable, convenience, accessible and innovative products, and services.

 

Joseph is the Manager – Alternative Delivery Channels Services Integrity Savings and Loans Ltd.

The post Improving financial access through digital banking appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.

Read Full Story