Somewhere in the quiet neighborhoods of Tindonsobligo, a suburb of the Bolgatanga Municipality, sits a small convenience shop. Painted yellow with an ash-colored metal gate, it serves as a lifeline for the community.
Residents visit to buy small, essential items they’ve run out of at home, and students from the nearby Tindonsobligo Primary and Junior High School stop by during breaks to grab snacks.
The shop is run by Angela, an elderly woman with a warm smile and a determined spirit.
Her business is small but steady, catering to the daily needs of her neighbors. Angela operates her shop strictly on a cash basis, and here’s why.
When Angela first started her business years ago, she was open to accepting mobile money payments, knowing that some of her customers would prefer it.
At first, it worked well—she would mentally calculate her earnings from mobile payments, visit an agent weekly to withdraw the funds, and reinvest them into her business.
But soon, discrepancies began to arise.
The balance on her phone didn’t match her calculations. Customers assured her they had sent the payments, but Angela, unable to verify the transactions herself due to her limited literacy, grew increasingly uneasy.
It wasn’t until an agent helped her request a statement from her network provider that Angela uncovered the truth: all her customers had indeed sent the payments. However, the funds had been withdrawn—not by Angela, nor by the trusted agent.
The culprit was closer to home than she could have imagined. Angela discovered that her teenage daughter had been secretly transferring funds from Angela’s mobile account and deleting the transaction messages. The betrayal shocked Angela to her core.
Not only had she lost trust in her daughter, but she also lost faith in digital payment systems altogether. Determined never to be deceived again, Angela closed her mobile account, registered a new number, and decided to operate strictly on cash.
To Angela, cash is king—a principle she’s held onto ever since.
The Cost of Dependency: How Financial Exclusion Holds Women Back
Angela’s story is not just a personal tragedy; it reflects a much larger issue affecting women in her community and beyond. Like many women in the Upper East Region, Angela’s ability to fully participate in the digital economy has been stifled—not by lack of opportunity, but by systemic barriers that limit her access to secure and reliable financial systems.
Women like Angela often rely on others—whether family members, agents, or trusted intermediaries—to navigate financial systems they cannot fully understand or control. This dependency creates vulnerabilities that can lead to financial losses, mistrust, and, ultimately, exclusion from tools that could help them grow their businesses and secure their futures.
In Angela’s case, the betrayal by her own daughter not only cost her financially but also eroded her confidence in digital payment systems.
Without trust, Angela retreated from mobile money entirely, reverting to cash-only transactions. While this decision gives her a sense of security, it limits her ability to expand her business, save securely, or engage in larger, more efficient financial networks.
Many women in the Upper East Region, like Angela, face a similar dilemma. Their businesses, while essential to their communities, remain confined to local markets due to limited access to digital financial tools.
For women unable to read or write, the exclusion from digital finance systems is even more pronounced, preventing them from expanding beyond their immediate area and accessing the larger, more profitable markets.
According to The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19, global account ownership has reached 76% of the population, with 71% in developing economies.
The Africa Nenda Report highlights mobile money as a key enabler of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa, promoting account ownership and usage through payments, savings, and borrowing.
However, for women like Angela, mobile money remains out of reach due to illiteracy and socio-cultural challenges.
The 2024 State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (SIIPs) report reveals that female respondents report low literacy, low incomes, and lack of financial independence as factors discouraging the use of digital payments. The gap in financial inclusion extends to broader economic participation. For example, 40% of adults in developing economies began paying utility bills directly from accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic for the first time, and 40% of adults in these regions started making digital merchant payments using cards, phones, or the internet for the first time. Yet these advancements have not equitably benefited women, who remain disproportionately excluded.
Bridging the gender gap in mobile money and digital financial services aligns with DPI principles by promoting gender equity, financial inclusion, and poverty reduction.
Other Excluded Voices
Atule Amune sells kenkey in the Bolgatanga Municipality. She, like Angela, does not have a mobile account. She understands the benefits of owning one but remains excluded due to illiteracy. Despite missing out on several sales from prospective clients who prefer mobile payments, she continues to operate with cash only.
“I sell Kenkey. I use Momo, but I don’t use it for my business because I cannot send or withdraw money myself. My son has been doing it for me. If he is there, I use his number to collect the Momo. If he is not there, I do not take Momo. It affects me a lot because people who always want to buy with Momo are turned away. They are always unhappy. I also miss money from people because those who don’t have cash to pay will always turn away. I wish I could get someone to teach me how to use Momo,” Atule explains.
Augustina Abangibire, a seasoned shea butter producer, also faces challenges with mobile money. While she operates a mobile account, she can only receive funds—she is unable to send money herself. “I use a Momo account, but I only withdraw. I cannot send money. It is my son who helps me. If he is not around, it’s tdifficult for me to send money.”
At the time of our engagement, Augustina was waiting for her son to send funds to a supplier in Kumasi. “It affects me in the sense that I was supposed to send money to someone in Kumasi, but my son is not here, and I’m waiting for him. This slows down my business. I wish I could learn how to send and withdraw money using my phone,” she shared.
The Cost of Financial Exclusion
Angela and Atule, both small business owners, face significant losses daily. Angela cannot afford to sell to customers who are unfamiliar to her and cannot pay in cash. For trusted neighbors, Angela is willing to offer goods on credit, but even then, the risk of losing money is ever-present.
Trust in her community is fragile—if a neighbor were to run off without paying for borrowed items, Angela would be left at a loss.
For Atule, she does not even have the luxury of selling on credit because she operates in a commercial spot rather than a neighborhood.
For many women who cannot read or write and are thus unable to accept digital payments, expanding their businesses becomes nearly impossible. “They are always confined to their local areas. They cannot access markets beyond their immediate community. Growth is a major hurdle. Product development is another challenge,” explained Raymond Ayinne, Campaigns and Advocacy Manager for AfriKids.
AfriKids, a child rights organization, has spent the last two decades helping women like Angela establish and expand their businesses. One of the key strategies has been helping women set up and operate their own mobile accounts, which is essential for integrating into broader financial networks.
The organization also runs an adult literacy program aimed at helping women in the Upper East Region improve their reading skills and perform basic mathematics.
“We started by training illiterate market women, then gradually introduced digital tools like social media and basic photography to help these women sell beyond their immediate environment. One of the most important parts of the training was teaching them how to use USSD codes for mobile payments,” Mr. Ayinne shared.
This program has primarily operated in the Bolgatanga Municipality. However, Mr. Ayinne believes that its success can be scaled up with deliberate government support and the right policies to help more women access these transformative tools.
Lived Success
Monica Akanloe is a 32 year old local soap maker. She has been doing the business for three years. Monica cannot read or write, but uses Momo. How? Well, she spent several days, trial and error and with incredible courage, to learn how to use mobile money.
Today, she may be able to do very little with a mobile phone but at least, she does not miss out on any business.
“I give my number out and they send me money. It is easier and faster. I will advise those who don’t know how to use Momo to try and get someone to teach them because when they rely on somebody they will steal their pin and one day withdraw money from your wallet without you knowing it is risky land into yourself and do it yourself,” she said.
Not all would be able to go through such a bullish method for learning, this is why there has to be solutions to help with inclusivity and grow mobile accounts ownership.
The Solutions
The total value of mobile money transactions hit GH¢1.775 trillion in the first eight months of 2024, according to data from the Bank of Ghana.
This is compared with GH¢1.031 trillion in the same period in 2023. This growth in mobile money transactions is astonishing and provides an opportunity for the country to deepen financial inclusion.
With targeted initiatives—such as digital literacy programs, government-backed partnerships, and increased access to financial resources—women like Angela, Atule, and Augustina can overcome their barriers and unlock their full entrepreneurial potential.
Scaling up mobile money access and ensuring digital literacy for women could not only reduce the gender gap but also stimulate local economies, fostering more inclusive and sustainable growth across the Upper East Region.
Software Engineer, Louis Marie Ayariga explains that the USSD, which has been long proposed a solution for people who cannot use smart phones or apps for payments, may not be as easy it seems.
“The USSD is taking us back to what many people were running away from. You have to be able to memorise numbers and still navigate texts,” Mr. Ayariga said explaining the complexity of the system for illiterate people.
Even before remembering which number prompts to use while going through the process, there’s a difficulty in remebering the various shortcodes for the various mobile wallets as operated by different network operators.
The software engineer proposes a call system that is hosted in indigenous language. He explains that that would be easier for persons who cannot read or write to navigate the payment systems.
Mr. Ayariga’s point is corroborated by Ing. Dr. Ken Ashigbey, the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Communications. At a recent engagement with journalists,
Ing. Dr. Ashigbey spoke about the exponential growth of mobile money transactions stating that Ghana had crossed the trillion value mark for transactions and yet, for many people who could not read and write, their exclusion would mean that in fact, mobile payments have not reached their full potential.
He also proposed to telecommunication companies to explore the areas of automated call numbers for transactions rather than the USSD system that still holds some complexisities for persons who cannot read and write.
Albert Naa is the CEO of Norgence, a tech company headquartered in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Norgence provides innovative solutions for businesses across the country.
Currently, the company is developing a cutting-edge solution. “Norgence is creating an Artificial Intelligence tool called VEVA (Voice Enabled Virtual Assistant). VEVA is an AI agent that leverages the power of natural language processing (NLP) to provide a voice-enabled interface to various systems, such as those in healthcare, education, finance, and legal sectors. It’s a groundbreaking innovation with the potential to enhance financial inclusion, particularly for women.”
Mr. Naa explains, “For instance, if Yaabpoa, a Talene-speaking woman, wants to withdraw money from her MoMo or bank account, she could simply press the Voice Enabled Virtual Assistant (VEVA) button on her smart or feature phone to activate VEVA. She would then issue commands in her preferred language, which the system would process using NLP and execute as instructed. This new way of interaction will not only foster financial inclusion for women but also empower minority groups who may face challenges using their hands or eyes.”
VEVA is being designed as an independent platform, serving as an interface for all digital systems. By breaking barriers, it aims to create equal opportunities for all citizens to access services that were previously limited to the formally educated.
According to Mr. Naa, VEVA could also assist market women, such as those mentioned by Mr. Ayinne, by helping them build social media followings, engage potential customers, organize and conduct sales, prepare accounts, and access capital.
Conclusion: The Ripple Effect of Inclusion
If Angela, the owner of a small business in Tindonsobligo, had been equipped with the literacy skills and confidence to manage her mobile money account securely, her business might have thrived uninterrupted, benefitting not only herself but also her community.
The limited use of cash in her area underscores the importance of digital financial tools, yet illiteracy remains a significant barrier for women like Angela.
Addressing this challenge requires a collective effort from society—governments, financial institutions, community organizations, and educators—to create inclusive solutions.
This includes literacy programs tailored to women in rural areas, user-friendly financial platforms designed for low-literacy individuals, and initiatives that promote awareness about digital tools.
Financial inclusion for women is not just an economic imperative; it is a social responsibility. By ensuring that all women, regardless of their literacy levels, can access and confidently use financial tools, we empower them to sustain their businesses, contribute to their families, and foster community development.
Bridging the literacy gap is the key to unlocking their potential and creating a more inclusive and equitable economy for all.
