The Head of Engineering at Stanbic Bank Ghana, Eric Nsarkoh, has attributed the success of the mobile money innovation to partnerships in the financial and fintech ecosystem.

Eric Nsarkoh said this at the 2023 edition of the Mobile Technology for Development (MT4D) conference held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra.

Speaking on the initiatives that have driven the mobile money innovation, Eric Nsarkoh said “the first four years of the mobile money innovation experienced very minimal growth.

As of 2012, the number of active mobile money wallets in Ghana stood at about 220,000 whereas in Tanzania, it was around 8 million.

” So, the question we need to ask ourselves is, for something that was launched in 2009, what accounted for the slow growth in the first four years and what happened the seven years after that took us to over 11 million active users. And I think the success in that second bucket was on the back of treasured partnerships”, he said.

“There was a conscious decision, based on the fact that we are not a cashiering economy, to invite banks as partners to have a frank and open discussion on the mobile money journey. The banks saw the potential and invested in the distribution where they signed contracts with microfinance institutions in rural areas and the money reached the agents. And mobile money is a liquidity game. So, once the money reaches the agent and you put incentives and interventions that secures it you are good to go. And I think that was the starting point of the success we currently have in the mobile money service”, he added.

Mobile Technology for Development is organized by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication and the Africa Financial Inclusion Forum under the auspices of the Office of the Vice President in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana.

The annual event provides a platform for stakeholders within the financial, technology and development sector to converge at a single location to share ideas, exhibit solutions and take stock of innovations in payments, deposit, credit, remittance and insurance, and build partnerships for enhanced effort towards financial inclusion in Ghana.

This year’s conference was held under the theme, “Driving Digital Financial Inclusion in the Real Economy.”