Bank of Ghana is the 18th AFI member to commit to the Maya Declaration.

Recently, Ghana had made strides in creating an enabling environment for financial inclusion, as a precursor to its Maya Declaration commitment.  In addition to passing the Payment System Law, the country also issued guidelines for branchless banking and established both the Credit Reference Bureaux and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GIPSS), an independent body responsible for overseeing the country’s payment and settlement system infrastructure.

With the enabling financial infrastructure in place, Ghana’s Maya Declaration commitments represented a natural continuation of the country’s efforts to achieve financial inclusion. The commitments read as follows:

1) Revise the Payment System Strategy by the end of 2012 to promote the agenda of financial inclusion in line with emerging global trends

2) Review the regulatory framework of branchless banking to create an enabling environment and promote innovation toward the achievement of 70% financial inclusiveness by the year 2017

3) Implement interoperability among the stakeholders in the mobile financial services value chain to stimulate an uptake of mobile financial services by the unbanked in Ghana

4) Sustain consumer protection and empowerment

5) Develop concrete steps for financial literacy by the end of 2012 to create the needed awareness and interest in the financial services

Concurrently to the aforementioned commitments, Ghana also pledged to engage in interactive exchange with AFI, including reporting on progress made.