MOBILE MONEY opportunity in mobile money for both banks and telcos ,” said PwC .
Vish Ashiagbor , Country Senior Partner at PwC said the development was one that warrants a careful analysis in order to make a fully informed decision . “ With mobile money making such drastic inroads into the banking space , we set out to understand what bank executives are making of the development and how they are planning to win in this era .
“ For us , winning in this era does not mean eliminating mobile money but rather being competitive in spite of any threats and due to any opportunities that mobile money presents ,” he said .
The banking industry remain relatively bigger but figures being churned out by the mobile money operators year in year out could do a lot of damage to the confidence of the banks in the medium-term . Already with over 30 or so banks , the competition for depositors ’ funds is tough and the last thing the competition will want is a player with a stranglehold on the market as the telcos are often seen as . Just last year , mobile money operators recorded a value of transaction of about GH ¢ 35.4billion , an increase of more than 200 percent over the 2014 figure . This transactional value was recorded on the back of more than 260 million transactions in a market that has since seen a new entrant in the form of Vodafone Cash , powered by the namesake mobile operator . The value of mobile money transactions , when put into perspective is just GH ¢ 5.85billion shy of the total deposit liabilities of the 29 banks as at the end of last year , a figure that is likely to be surpassed by the mobile operators this year .
Since the introduction of mobile money to the Ghana market in 2009 , it has played a key role in the push for financial inclusion . According to data from the World Bank , in 2010 a relatively
OVER FIVE MILLION ACTIVE MOBILE MONEY SUBSCRIBERS BEING SERVED BY CLOSE TO 50,000 MERCHANTS NATIONWIDE
large segment of the Ghanaian population – 44 percent , was excluded from the financial services sector altogether . During this period , access to formal banking services hovered around 34 percent . By 2015 however , the segment of the population excluded from the financial services system had dropped to 25 percent , the World Bank said , driven primarily by the widespread adoption of
mobile money for financial services .
According to the latest Bank of Ghana report on the mobile money sector , between 2012 and first quarter 2016 , registered mobile money subscribers increased from 3.8 million to 14.6 million , while active subscribers shot up from 345,434 to 5.3 million within the period . After years of partnership and collaboration , any entry by the telcos into full-time banking would be seen as an act of betrayal by the banks . But for the consumer , it is all about ease and comfort and who is serving it does not matter that much .
2016 | Business Times Africa 33