Many still don’t understand my ‘every Ghanaian will a get bank account’ comment - Veep

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said that a lot of Ghanaians still do not understand what he meant by every Ghanaian will have a bank account.

He said most people thought he was talking about traditional bank accounts but that was not the case.

On Tuesday, August 11, the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram Constituency, Samuel Nartey George, criticised the government for failing to honour its promises in ensuring that every Ghanaian obtains a bank account.

It will be recalled that the Vice President, speaking at the official opening of the Innovation Week organised by the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Accra, expressed the government’s desire for every Ghanaian to have a bank account by 2018.

This, according to him, was to ensure financial inclusion in the country.

“Financial inclusion is very key to the economy. We have to make sure that everybody practically has a bank account” he said in December, 2017, adding that “this is how we are going to change the economy”.

He said the over 70 per cent of Ghanaians without bank accounts could be helped to own one with the use of technology.

“Everyone has to have a bank account,” he said, adding that “and for that to happen, technology must be available for it to happen”.

But assessing the performance of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration on the New Day programme on TV3 , Sam George noted that the government has failed on its promises.

“We were told every Ghanaian will have a bank account, that did not happen?” he quizzed.

Addressing The youth wing of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Accra on Wednesday, August 12, 2020, Vice President Bawumia explained what he meant by every Ghanaian will get a bank account.

“Explained that with the triangular feature which mobile money payments interoperability allows; that is the transfer of funds from mobile money accounts to bank accounts and vice versa, as well as from mobile or bank accounts to biometirc payment card accounts (ezwich), it means that anyone with a mobile account has a bank account. They can make payments out of it and receive interest on their balances.”

The Vice President noted: “Many people did not and do not understand that we have moved away from the world of branch banking into branchless banking. You can have your bank account on your phone. You can do banking without visiting a bank branch or signing a cheque.

“Many people did not and still do not quite understand what I meant when I said every eligible Ghanaian will be able to get a bank account. They were thinking about traditional bank accounts. Well, I can say without any fear of contradiction that as a result of mobile money interoperability over 15 million Ghanaians today (many of whom are unbanked in the traditional sense) have a bank account. This is a remarkable achievement and shows the power of digitization.”