There is no denying the fact that mobile money across various networks (MTN, Vodafone, Airtel-Tigo) dominated the Electronic Money Issuer ecosystem for a long time and dictated the pace on how people performed their everyday transactions.

At the introductory stage of the ecosystem, MTN did a lot of work in educating customers about their service since the adoption rate of electronic money issuer offerings was generally low.

The market although promising had to shift from the old ways of making payments to a more convenient way of doing same and yet there was a knowledge gap that had to be filled.

A lot of would-be customers exercised the fear they could be defrauded through the mobile money platform and constantly refused to sign up on the platform. Some could just not understand the concept of E-cash and saw it as an alien service in some respect.

As mentioned in Part 1 of this write up, an integrated communication strategy was weaved together to educate would be customers about how MTN mobile money as a service worked instead of the earlier communication about the service which seemed too generic to understand.

As earlier stated, Banks held all funds in trust for the MTN mobile money service albeit the platform was an indirect competitor or a substitute of Banking services.

Airtel Money, Tigo Cash and Vodafone Cash also offered their services to customers with focus on value added offerings aside the traditional cash-in and cash-out services on offer.

A lot of Fintechs erupted around the same period during the rise of Mobile money which lead to partnership projects in the ecosystem as Telcos, Fintechs and Banks interdepended on each other to form a strong partnership for future business.

Value added offerings in forms of airtime purchase and bill payment became predominant through android and iOS applications as consumers became more comfortable with such platforms-clearly it can be argued that mobile money services created a halo effect for the rise of other mobile payment/banking services.

USSD usage also became common during the same period as an effective channel for conveying mobile payment or banking services. The same period saw the scramble for dedicated USSD codes by Banks and Fintechs from the National Communication Authority as it became strategic to acquire codes that had the capability to create top-of-the-mind awareness as well as brand recall for product adoption.

By the year 2016, The Bank of Ghana playing it supervisory role reacted to the landscape changes in the digital financial services industry by creating the new Payment Systems office which was hitherto under the Banking Supervision Department to ensure a proper regulation of the industry.

The Electronic Money Issuer Guidelines was then developed to guide the digital financial services ecosystem which laid the foundation for the development of the Payment Systems and Services Act 2019 in use today.

It is noteworthy to mention that patronage of card payment services with the deployment of Point of Sale Terminals at retail business locations also played a major role and continues to do same in the digital financial services industry as an alternative to cash payment.

Banks invested heavily through the provision of POS terminals in order to stay competitive in the industry and to provide a convenient and secure way of receiving payment. International card schemes was always the main driver of this payment vertical.

The popularity of web acquiring platforms was also attached to key e-commerce services as convenient shopping became a popular lifestyle. This was sustained through Banks facilitating the provision of payment gateways to e-commerce service providers. The modes of payment focused on card payment as well as mobile money payment.

Today, this service has gained root and continues to be offered by some Fintech companies aside traditional Banks.

There is no denying the fact that the Fintech space in Ghana has developed into a major ecosystem with many players offering various services to customers.

For instance, lendtech services has become an acceptable form of product promoting financial inclusion as well as other wings of digital financial services which is set to grow such as insuretech for B2C target segment and regtech for B2B target segment.

Remittance and Money Transfer service providers have also taken advantage of the current ecosystem to launch various services to customers such as the termination of funds to wallets which hitherto was non-existent.

Clearly, it can be said without equivocation that the Digital Financial Services industry will continue to grow with the many opportunities in the space yet to be tapped.

The future of the space provides a promising Launchpad for the benefit of many businesses within different industries.

The future is a digital economy and the right step for business operations is that you must either evolve or you expire!

The author Ebenezer Yalley is a Fintech Specialist and can be reached via email: ebenezeryalley11@gmail.com