Welcome to Fintech Fridays, a brand new podcast segment by The Sound of Accra Podcast, exploring current financial trends and technology impacting the nation of Ghana, whilst analysing what that means for you and me, in micro episodes.
Happy December! If you are listening in December 2023, I'm confident a lot of you are preparing to jet over to Accra for the holiday festivities. If you are looking to transfer money within the country or convert your foreign money digitally to use in Ghana, then you definitely want to listen to this episode.
Summary in This Week’s episode
- Cedis depreciates from 15 Cedis to the Pound Sterling for the first time since March 2023: One of the reasons I suspect for the Cedis depreciating could be the Ghana Cocoa Board securing a loan from International Banks of a whopping $800 million dollars, to buy Cocoa from Farmers. The interest rate is at an all time high of 8%
- Mobile Money transactions in Ghana hits a Trillion Cedis: Mobile Money transactions in the first eight months of 2023 reached a record GH₵1.190 trillion, according to the September 2023 Summary of Economic and Financial Data from the Bank of Ghana.This is a jump from GH₵655.97 billion recorded during the same period in 2022. It’s clear for sure that Mobile Money has increased in usage despite the E-levy.
- Bank of Ghana suspends money transfers for Top Remittance and Fintech apps: The Bank of Ghana have suddenly blocked the activity of many African based and international Fintech and Remittance apps, including Lem-fi, Xoom by PayPal, Boss Revolution, Wise and many others, in mid-november, because they did not have approval from the Bank of Ghana. This is according to the Foreign Exchange Act 2006.
- Car Loans to be available through Ghana Card: Now, have you got a Ghana card and living in Ghana? You soon could qualify to apply for Car Loans. The Ghana card is gradually becoming the gateway to ghana in all things buying and selling. It is the main digital ID issued to citizens and foreigners in Ghana. It is required for almost every public and private sector transaction – from applying for a passport, to financial and business transactions, to registering a SIM card, to finding employment, among other uses.
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Welcome to Fintech Fridays, a brand new podcast segment by The Sound of Accra
00:00:04
Podcast. Once again, I'm your host, Adrian Daniels. In this brand
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new podcast segment, I will explore current financial trends and
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technologies impacting the nation of Ghana whilst Analyzing what
00:00:15
that means for you and me in micro short episodes. Happy
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December. If you're listening in December 2023, I'm confident
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a lot of you are preparing to jet over to Accra for the holiday
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festivities or, of a matter of fact, are already there. Now
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if you're looking to transfer money within the country or convert If you're throwing money
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digitally to use in Ghana, then you definitely wanna listen to this episode
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for the latest roundup of news. Now
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for the first time since March 2023, the Ghanaian cities has exceeded
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the 15 cities to British pound sterling mark. For
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Americans, this is 12 cities to for $1. This
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news is just in time for tourists heading over to Ghana who, this time
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last year, enjoyed improved the rate So of over 17 cities to
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1 pound in early December 2022, just before the cities
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plummeted to the 10 city mark to 1 pound suddenly in late
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December 2022. Now for Americans, this would have been all the way
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down to 8 to 9 cities to the dollar. Now one of the
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reasons I suspect for the city's depreciating could be the Ghana
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Cocoa board securing a loan from international banks of a whopping
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$800 in ordered to buy cocoa from farmers.
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Now this interest rate is at an all time high of 8% that they
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need to pay back the loan on. The good news here is
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that although the cities has depreciated quite a bit, the cities has
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been relatively stable over the past few months. And tourists
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may be able to still get a good exchange rate despite the increase of
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goods in Ghana. Now speaking of boards and associations,
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mobile money agents Associations in Ghana have announced a
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temporary measure to restrict cash drawers to maximum of a
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1000 cities per Transaction effective from today in
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December 2023, December 1st that is.
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Now for those of you who aren't where the mobile money agents in Ghana are
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independent vendors who you can visit in small booths across the country.
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And they act as intermediaries To withdraw, send, or transfer
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cities electronically from your mobile money account to another.
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Now one reason for this is by the mobile money Agents themselves who feel they
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are losing out on commissions and those withdrawing a lot of money and want
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high commissions paid out on certain transactions. For example, they
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also requested a 50% share of cash out commissions and a
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maximum cash out amount of a 1000 cities. At the end of the
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day, they are workers, employees
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just like you and me, and they deserve a fair Comp
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compensation for their work. There were also complaints by these
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very agents in the commission payments received as well. So as a
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result, A decision for them to get paid more frequently has been agreed upon
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their service providers. Now the average person in Ghana lives from
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paycheck to paycheck. So regular payments for them is It's probably a key
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here. This is also the reason why you would see the likes of
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Uber and Bolt drivers in Ghana prefer cash
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or mobile money over using credit and debit cards to pay for
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trips because of that same delay in payments that they experience.
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Now Mobile money transactions in the 1st 8 months of
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2023 have reached a record of 1
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Ghanaian cities, according to the December 2023 summary of
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the economic and financial data from the Bank of Ghana. Now
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this is a jump from almost 700
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dollars, 700 cities recorded during the same period
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in 2022. It's clear for sure that mobile money has
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increased in usage despite the e levy.
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The Bank of Ghana have suddenly blocked the Activity of many African
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based and international fintech and remittance apps including
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NEMFI, Zoom by PayPal, Boss Revolution,
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Wise, and many others in mid November because they did not have
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approval from the Bank of Ghana. This is according to the foreign
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exchange act in 2006. Now this is a loss for
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the diaspora and other international stakeholders who have been relying on these
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apps for quite some time now. However, there are
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still other popular platforms out there permitting remittance
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and financial services between The city and foreign
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currency such as Waldromet, revolute, and many
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more. This is certainly an interesting move as this decision has been made
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just before the peak period in December 2023, where
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activity would have been arguably the highest for these companies. In
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addition, this foreign exchange law has been around for almost 20
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years. And so if there were officially restrictions on these companies
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not to trade in Ghana, they would have sought approval from the Bank of Ghana
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before trading. These 8 companies clearly haven't been
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officially restricted in the past, and it seems to be something that the Bank
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of Ghana only wants to take action on now for whatever reason.
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This could seem a good opportunity for the Bank of Ghana to getting
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there and maybe charge these fintech companies and maybe make
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a little bit of money to help Pay off debts that the country has.
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Now have you got a Ghana card and living in Ghana? You
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could soon qualify to apply for car loans.
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Now the Ghana card is gradually becoming the gateway to Ghana in all things
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buying and selling. It's the main digital ID issued to citizens
00:05:29
and foreigners in Ghana. It's required for almost every public and
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private sector transaction, whether that's maybe applying for a
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passport, financial and business transactions, Retreuing the
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SIM cards, finding a job, and many other uses.
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Now according to the vice president, Bomiya, Negotiations
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are on the way between intermediaries such as the car companies selling cars and
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state authorities to make this happen. So it does look like this
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ID will be the basis upon which a credit system could be actually
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launched in Ghana, which doesn't quite exist yet. But if it does
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exist, this could be the Beginning on of unlocking new economic opportunities
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for the country, but also businesses nationally and internationally
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where credit could be Wish to sell more goods and services, and, also,
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credit could be leveraged to help citizens in Ghana to be able to
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purchase, Good such as homes, cars, etcetera.
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What are your thoughts on Ghana's economy as 2023 comes to the
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close? We're always happy to hear from listeners. Feel free to follow the
00:06:29
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00:06:33
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00:06:36
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Reach out to us on any of the social media platforms. If you're listening on
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00:06:47
Please do leave one for us. And just to let you know, we also have
00:06:50
a YouTube channel. You can visit youtube.comforward/the sound of a Crowe
00:06:54
podcast to watch some previous episodes just like this and
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other and other shows that we have to get alerts and some more great content
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that we have lined up for you as well. You can visit our website, the
00:07:04
sound of a crowd dot com, if you wanna get in touch, or you can
00:07:07
email info at the sound of a crowd dot com. If you've listened to the
00:07:11
end, you've been incredible. I've been Adrian Daniels. Until the next
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Fintech Friday. Take care. God bless.