The Insights Manager, Assistive Tech, Connected Society, and Mobile Money at GSMA, Armita Satari, has suggested to stakeholders and innovators in Ghana’s Mobile Financial Service (MFS) space to consider the nuances to ownership, including intersectionality between gender and disability if they want to provide equitable
access to mobile-enabled financial inclusion.
She noted that in the absence of
such considerations, owning and using a mobile money account can still be
inaccessible or only accessible with the assistance of a trusted person.
In a recent GSMA Report on how
Mobile Money can drive financial inclusion of persons with disabilities in
Ghana, Ms. Satari observed that the
convenience of transacting from a mobile phone, mobile money, and other fintech
solutions could improve the financial inclusion of persons with disabilities
significantly.
Mobile
money wallets, she said, provide access to a range of financial services, not
only person to person transactions but also merchant payments (online or
in-person), savings and microloans, and insurance, adding that transacting via
mobile removes barriers such as inaccessible infrastructure, often faced by
customers with mobility or visual impairment; systemic discrimination of
persons with visible disabilities in approval processes of loans; bank tellers
with no or little training on inclusion or how to better serve customers with
disabilities; and communication barriers.
Acknowledging that mobile money and other fintech innovations have the power to transform the experience
of persons with disabilities for financial inclusion, Ms. Satari thinks that
the barriers preventing persons with disabilities from accessing mobile
services, including mobile financial services, are complex and cannot be
addressed by mobile operators alone.
She then proposed collaborative
actions on stakeholders to raise awareness on mobile money and other fintech
solutions and accessibility functions that can support persons with
disabilities.
“Making smartphones more
affordable for persons with disabilities would also tackle a significant
barrier, as would digital skills training designed to help the learning journey
of persons with different types of disabilities,” she said.
By:
Kanto Okanta
