Where is My Wallet?
Powering Transactions Through Digitization
“Where is my wallet?” Each time I think about this, I burst out in laughter. I mean, I have never been a big fan of wallets. The idea of having a fat piece of leather in my back pocket that distorts the way I sit and could probably give me caudal pain is unwarranted. I guess that made me hop on to the idea of debit cards, real quick.
The Cedi in my early years was not this light. Carrying GH₵100 now was carrying ₵1,000,000 then. Boy! That was a lot of money that could do and buy a lot of things. Talk of all the goodies and fun places you could visit having such a stack of cash on you!
“The Bank of Ghana is changing our currency. From July 2007, our money will change… There is no change in value; the value is the same!”
If you remember this song, as my friends on Twitter will say, you should be married by now.
This tune was released by the Bank of Ghana in efforts to educate the masses of the change in denomination of the then cedi to Ghana Cedi, drastically reducing the weight, yet, maintaining the value. It was the beginning of the turn around where lots of money began to fade away and wallets got lighter in weight, but with the same value in cash.
So where exactly is my wallet?
It is in 2008! And that is to the best of my knowledge… when I was entering Senior High School. Wallets are great! If they weren’t, I am positive they would have phased out by now. Yet you still find so many people with either puffy back pockets or with a handheld wallet all across the cities.
How much money can you carry in a wallet? How safe do you feel carrying the highest amount your wallet can hold, walking the streets of the city? How do you feel about having to pull out your wallet with your friends or family around who may end up asking you to share what you have with them because they have seen how much you hold?
Technology advancement has continually made things so much easier and convenient. Take a debit card for example, replacing paper money; unlimited amounts of money on a card that can fit into any pocket. The UK Finance reported that cash transactions had dropped by a drastic 54% from 2010 to 2020, with debit card payments rising by a whopping 166%! This reflects the use of debit cards as a strong alternative to cash.
Let’s take a quick look at Mobile Money. According to Ghana Talks Business, Mobile Money transactions in Ghana grew by over 30% in March 2020. They go on to elaborate that the total value of mobile money transactions in Ghana continue to greatly increase, from GHC23.4 billion in March 2019 to GHC33.8 billion within the same period in 2020.
In November 2020, there was an introduction of the Universal QR code, that allows for customers to make instant payments for goods and services from different funding sources — mobile wallets, cards and bank accounts, just by scanning a QR code on a smartphone or dialing a USSD code of payment.
If you own a business of some sort, or looking to venture into one, you should NOT be expecting your customers/prospects to transact by cash. In 2019, a survey by the U.S Federal Bank revealed that
1. In an average week, roughly 3 in 10 adults make zero purchases using cash
2. Those who carry paper money around have less than $50 in their pockets/wallets.
3. More than half the respondents of 2000 people use cards (debit/credit) on a regular basis.
This points to one endgame — More buyers want to be able to transact whenever and however without paper money!
How ready are you for this revolution? We are in a cashless world!
The earlier you acknowledge this and work with it, the better your chances of surviving the next phase technology will engulf us with.
You don’t want to be now finding your feet with receiving card payments when we are probably paying by iris or thumbprint or a wave. Who knows??!
That said, Rancard has diverse solutions and products that can aid you seamlessly transition into this digital and cashless age. Talk of end-to-end conversational commerce [ability to order products straight from your social channels by Artificial Intelligence(AI)], AI-enabled customer support, shortcode services, bulk SMS services, digital reward systems, to mention but a few.
Visit our website for more details ;)
And lest I forget, Rancard is 20 years old!! Whoop Whoop!!! Expect more exciting things from us as we commence the celebration soon!
Stay Tuned!
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