MOBILE MONEY AND WOMEN EMPLOYMENT

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         Mobile money services provided by different Telecommunication networks. 

For a society accustomed to carrying large sums of money in their pockets, wallets and handbags etcetera, the idea of transferring or receiving money with a few taps of a keyboard on a mobile phone sound's enticing.  Mobile money can be described as a financial service provided by a mobile network operator or another organization that collaborates with and is supported by a network of mobile money agents. With a six-fold increase in registered accounts between 2012 and 2017, Ghana has emerged recently as Africa's mobile money market with the fastest growth.

MTN introduced mobile money for the first time in Ghana in 2009 to much excitement. But the excitement faded very quickly as only roughly 350,000 Ghanaians were actively using mobile money accounts three years later. As providers struggled to understand why mobile money was not working, they soon discovered it was due to Bank of Ghana’s banking guidelines.  Therefore, by 2013, Bank of Ghana redrafted a regulatory reform. Finally in 2015, the revised guidelines became official and thus mobile money begun to rise. This has led to an avenue for many to gain employment most especially women. 

A female mobile money agent somewhere in Ghana

According to UN women.org, “women’s empowerment has remained an important issue as it is one of the main goals to achieve a sustainable development”. The introduction of mobile money 13 years ago has chucked enormous success in the transformation of the Ghanaian financial landscape. Through its use, financial transactions can be made at the comfort of one’s home or wherever they find themselves through the use of mobile money agents. It is worth noting that, many women have taken to being mobile money agents as full-time jobs in order to fend for themselves and their families. 

Some mobile money agents interviewed told NAFTI news various reasons why they became agents.

Madam Comfort Kwawu, a mobile money agent at Madina, a suburb of Accra, money transfer business has been beneficial to her and her two children. In her own words: “when I completed SHS I didn’t have any business to do, so I started this mobile money vendor work to support myself”.

For Madam Rosina Manko, an employee of Jones Net Real Estate, a company in Madina, that is into mobile money business, “I just completed nurses training and waiting for National Service, so instead of being at home eating and sleeping, I decided to work as an agent to keep myself occupied”.

Global goals for sustainable development 

Speaking to NAFTI news from NAFTI campus located at Cantonments, an Economist and Lecturer, Mr. Franklin Adjortor explains more about why more women are mobile agents than men. He explained that: “Mobile money has greatly improved the economy and with the gender dimension, the figures are not out there but when you look at the ecosystem of mobile agents, a significant number are females because you do not need a lot of education or capacity building to be employed, thus with the least of knowledge, one should be able to venture into this industry”.

Mr. Adjortor added: “Proportional basis show that, the number of literate women compared to men is low, therefore, it is an avenue whereby women are now encouraged to have business of their own and not just men having such businesses”.

SDG GOAL FIVE ON GENDER EQUALITY FOR ALL

Since its introduction, mobile money has been well-embraced by most Ghanaians and its benefits cannot be overlooked. As more people venture into the business, I urge you to help Ghana “Achieve gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls SDG Goal 5” by patronizing female mobile money agents.

Story by Eyram M.A. Yorgbe


Disclaimer: All images used in this post courtesy google.

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