Banks urged to collaborate with Telcos for financial inclusion

Outgoing Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Albert Essien has called on banks in the country to collaborate with the telecom operators in the mobile money industry to ensure financial inclusion.

Speaking on Joy FM Super Morning Show, Albert Essien noted that the telcos have the numbers and so the way for banks to ensure that more unbanked Ghanaians get into the banking system is for them to work with the telcos instead of competing with them.

"The telcos are disrupters in the banking industry in the positive sense, and they have the numbers so the banks have to collaborate with them especially in the area of consumer banking," he said. "I think the telcos will turn financial industry and financial intermediation upside down so the banks must see them as partners rather than competitors."

Albert Essien's call comes at a time when the Bank of Ghana has issued two new guidelines to govern the mobile money industry in a way that gives telcos some level of autonomy to run their mobile money platforms.

The two guidelines are the E-Money Issuer (EMI) Guidelines and the Agent Guidelines; and they form part of the roadmap towards a cashless/cash-lite society.

Under the previous guidelines, mobile money was bank-led because the license was issued to them and they dictated the terms when working with telcos. But the new guidelines allows telcos to get the license directly from the regulator and go to the banks for collaboration.

Some banks are already partnering several telcos in mobile money, but other banks were reportedly apprehensive about the disruption the telcos threaten to bring into the industry.

Telcos' mobile money platforms are now going to become separate financial institutions and offer more flexible financial packages to a larger number of Ghanaians, who would not have to necessarily go to the bank to access banking services, but get those services through a mobile money company.

But the banks will still be the institutions where all moneys moving on the mobile money platforms would be deposited, so the banks get to be paid a fee for holding the money.

Albert Essien noted that, even though that is a disruption in the sector, it is a positive one that promises to grow the consumer/retail banking portfolios of partner banks and ultimately boost financial inclusion in the country.

He described the BOG's new guidelines as a good one that promises to ensure that banking and financial intermediation reaches a wider segment of the public.

Albert Essien has recently stepped down as Group CEO of Ecobank Transnational and said he will now play an advisory role in the financial sector and spend more time with his family.