Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

The goal of the current study was to explore personal, business, and social money-related practices that have emerged with increased patronage of MM in Ghana. Of particular interest was the impact of MM on the urban poor who so far appear to be the sector of the population least aware of, and for now, the least likely to use MM in their daily lives. Research to answer these questions was conducted using surveys, spending diaries, interviews, and analysis of secondary data.The results of this series of studies revealed the following:1. Cash is King in Ghana: Cash is still the main form of payment for day-to-day purchases. Large payments generally involve involvement of the formal banking sector. Cashless payment forms have not yet began to dominate the payment2. Mobile Money knowledge and use has increased, but MM has not become a major means of payment for goods and services, or savings.3. Mobile Network Operators have increased MM products available to the public, slowly creating a MM ecosystem. However, apart from money transfer, this ecosystem is largely targeting the middle and upper class.4. Barriers to MM uptake remain: Information gathered from interviews indicates the persistence of regulatory, partnership, and educational barriers that hamper the growth of the MM industry in Ghana.