“The changing digital finance space will require higher quality and more comprehensive data accompanied by sound analysis in order to identify implications,” emphasized second Deputy Governor, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) during her keynote address at the Joint Learning Programme (JLP) on Measuring Financial Inclusion: Way Forward in the Digital Age.

Organized by BoG and Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the five-day JLP takes places from 4-8 June in Accra, Ghana. The programme is part of AFI’s Building Capacities for Development (ABCD) platform — and in response to members’ growing interest to establish, and operate efficient data collection, and analysis systems to promote digital financial services (DFS) in their respective countries.

During her keynote address alongside Dr. Settor Amediku, Head of Payment Systems at BoG, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi highlighted that “financial inclusion is critical to promoting economic inclusion and in effect, poverty reduction. Digital technology has the potential to facilitate financial inclusion through innovative digitally delivered financial services.”

Gathering more than 30 participants from 24 AFI member countries who are keen to support DFS in their respective regions, the JLP seeks to encourage and provide support for members to design and build appropriate systems to enhance accessibility, safety and efficiency in service delivery to the financially excluded.

“While we collectively have ambitious targets to achieve in enhancing financial inclusion, the focus is not the speed at which we do it, but the approach adopted, the quality delivered and the cost at which we do so,” conveyed Madhurantika Moulick, Head of Capacity Building at AFI, during her opening remarks.

Ghana has adopted the digital way to financial inclusion where DFS is not a part of Ghana’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) — going the DFS route is the strategy itself. Adoption of such a strategy has led to diverse innovations, higher inclusion rate and making a significant impact on the consumers.

During the JLP, BoG will share its knowledge on the design and implementation of an effective data collection system that supports the achievement of its financial inclusion objective and supervision of the payment system in Ghana. A demonstration of computing interest payable on mobile money account holders’ float balances, will also take place during the five-day programme.