Ghana’s financial inclusion drive must now move beyond the widespread availability of mobile money and digital payment services to ensure that individuals and small businesses can obtain credit, insurance and investment opportunities on fair and competitive terms, the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Matilda Asante-Asiedu, has said.

She argued that while Ghana has made considerable progress in building a modern digital payments ecosystem, the country still faces a major gap in translating that progress into meaningful access to finance, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Speaking at the Distinguished Digital Finance Lecture held as part of National ICT Week, Ms Asante-Asiedu said the success of financial inclusion should no longer be measured simply by how many people can open accounts, send money or make digital payments.

According to her, the more important question for policymakers and financial institutions should be whether citizens and businesses can obtain the financial services they need when they need them and at reasonable terms.

“The next standard for inclusion when we measure our performance as a country should be whether people have access to credit, insurance and investment on fair terms when they need to,” she said.

Her comments come against the backdrop of a significant financing challenge confronting Ghana’s SME sector, with the country facing an estimated $4.8 billion annual SME financing gap.

For the Second Deputy Governor, the figure exposes a fundamental weakness in Ghana’s financial architecture: the country has developed efficient systems for moving money but has not achieved the same level of sophistication in making money available to businesses that need capital to grow.

“We have built extraordinary payment rails, but we have not yet built equally extraordinary credit rails,” she observed.

The credit paradox

Ghana’s financial sector has in recent years undergone considerable digital transformation, with mobile money, electronic payments and interoperable payment systems making it easier for individuals and businesses to transact.

However, Asante-Asiedu said the country must now confront what she described as the disconnect between transaction activity and access to credit.

She noted that digital payment platforms generate valuable information about the activities of businesses, including how frequently they receive payments, their transaction volumes, revenue patterns and the consistency of their cash flows.

Such information, she argued, could potentially provide lenders with a more comprehensive picture of the financial strength of small businesses.

“It shows merchant payment activity, how frequent transactions occur, whether volumes are growing or falling, and how regular and predictable income is. This is not just background information. It is a credit record,” she stressed.

The argument represents a shift in emphasis from conventional assessments of creditworthiness, which often rely heavily on formal financial statements and physical assets, towards the use of digital transaction histories as an additional source of evidence.

Collateral remains a major obstacle

The BoG official also raised concerns about the continued dependence of the financial system on traditional forms of collateral, particularly land and buildings, when assessing loan applications.

She pointed out that a business could have strong cash flows, contracts and receivables but still struggle to secure financing if its assets do not satisfy conventional collateral requirements imposed by lenders.

This, she suggested, creates a situation where potentially viable businesses remain excluded from formal credit despite demonstrating evidence of commercial activity.

The challenge, therefore, is not merely about increasing the number of financial accounts or digital transactions but ensuring that the information generated through those transactions can be converted into meaningful financial opportunities.

Open banking seen as potential game changer

Asante-Asiedu consequently called for stronger implementation of open banking and open finance frameworks to help address the financing constraints confronting SMEs.

She cautioned, however, that the success of such initiatives should not be judged simply by the number of technological systems or application programming interfaces developed.

Instead, she said the ultimate test should be whether these innovations help businesses obtain finance.

“The SME financing gap [should be] the explicit measure of success,” she said.

Her position effectively places the needs of businesses at the centre of the digital finance debate, suggesting that technological innovation should ultimately produce tangible economic benefits rather than simply create new platforms.

Regulators urged to work together

The Second Deputy Governor also called for closer coordination among key financial regulators, including the Bank of Ghana, the National Insurance Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Pensions Regulatory Authority.

She argued that as financial services become increasingly interconnected and technology-driven, regulatory institutions must ensure that innovation is assessed according to the risks involved rather than through fragmented regulatory approaches.

The call comes at a time when digitalisation is increasingly blurring the traditional boundaries between banking, insurance, investment and other financial services.

Asante-Asiedu also highlighted cybersecurity as another critical area requiring attention, particularly as Ghana expands its digital financial infrastructure.

She said cybersecurity capacity must be strengthened across the financial sector, including among smaller institutions that may have fewer resources to invest in sophisticated security systems.