While emerging studies on mobile financial inclusion have focused on the factors driving the adoption of mobile money, little evidence exists on how the service is facilitating the use of formal financial services. Using the World Bank Findex data, we estimate the effect of mobile money adoption on the use of formal accounts, savings, and credit in Ghana. The results of the recursive bivariate probit analysis showed a significant symbiotic relationship between mobile money adoption and the probability of operating a formal account. Mobile money adoption has a positive effect on savings and access to credit but does not affect the avenues to savings and obtaining credit respectively. Mobile money users save in their wallet and obtain microcredit through the mobile money platform but not through formal channels. These findings reinforce the hypothesis that mobile money is the surest financial tool for achieving universal financial inclusion in developing countries.

Ajayi, K.F. and Ross, P.H. (2020) ‘The effects of education on financial outcomes: evidence from Kenya’, Economic Development and Cultural Change 69(1): 253–89 <https://doi.org/10.1086/702996>.

Alderman, H., Gentilini, U. and Yemtsov, R. (eds) (2018) The 1.5 Billion People Question: Food, Vouchers, or Cash Transfers? World Bank, Washington, DC.

Allen. F., Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L. and Peria, S.M. (2012) The Foundations of Financial Inclusion: Understanding Ownership and Use of Formal Accounts, Policy Research Working Paper 6290, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Amponsah, S. (2017) ‘The impacts of improvements in the delivery of credit from formal and semi-formal financial institutions: evidence from Ghana’, Journal of African Development 19(2): 33–66 <https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrideve.19.2.0033>.

Arnold, J. and Gammage, S. (2019) ‘Gender and financial inclusion: the critical role for holistic programming’, Development in Practice 29(8): 965–73 <https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2019.1651251>.

Aron, J. (2018) ‘Mobile money and the economy: a review of the evidence’, The World Bank Research Observer 33(2): 135–88 <https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lky001>.

Bank of Ghana (2017) Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report, 2017, IDPS Department, Bank of Ghana, Ghana.

Bank of Ghana (2019) Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report, 2019, IDPS Department, Bank of Ghana, Ghana.

Bank of Ghana (2020) Summary of Economic and Financial Data, Bank of Ghana, Ghana.

Batista, C. and Vicente, P.C. (2016) Introducing Mobile Money in Rural Mozambique: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment [online] <https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/download.cgi?db_name=CSAE2016&paper_id=1086> [accessed 3 November 2020].

Beck, T. and Demirgüç-Kunt, A. (2006) ‘Small and medium-size enterprise: access to finance as a growth constraint’, Journal of Banking and Finance 30: 2931–43 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2006.05.009>.

Beck, T., Demirgüç-Kunt, A. and Levine, R. (2007) ‘Finance, inequality, and the poor’, Journal of Economic Growth 12(1): 27–49 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-007-9010-6>.

Bruhn, M. and Love, I. (2014) ‘The real impact of improved access to finance: evidence from Mexico’, Journal of Finance 69(3): 1347–76 <https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12091>.

Chattopadhyay, S.K. (2011) Financial Inclusion in India: A Case-study of West Bengal [pdf], MPRA Paper No. 34269 <https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/34269/1/Financial_Inclusion_in_India.pdf> [accessed 14 August 2018].

Consultative Group to assist the Poor (CGAP) (2016) CGAP Annual Report 2016: Advancing Financial Inclusion to Improve the Lives of the Poor [pdf] <https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/organizational-documents/CGAP_Annual_Report_FY16.pdf> [accessed 14 November 2018].

Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L.F. and Singer, D. (2013) Financial Inclusion and Legal Discrimination against Women: Evidence from Developing Countries, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6416, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., Singer, D. and Van Oudheusden, P. (2015) The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 7255, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., Singer, D., Ansar, S. and Hess, J. (2018) Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Demombynes, G. and Thegeya, A. (2012) Kenya’s Mobile Revolution and the Promise of Mobile Savings, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, No. 5988, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Dube, C. and Gumbo, V. (2017) ‘A model for financial inclusion: the case of the retail industry in Zimbabwe’, Business and Management Studies 3(3): 10–24 <https://doi.org/10.11114/bms. v3i3.2489>.

Dzokoto, V.A. and Appiah, E. (2014) Making Sense of Mobile Money in Urban Ghana: Personal, Business, Social, and Financial Inclusion Prospects [pdf], IMTFI Final Research Report <https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2012/dzokoto.php> [accessed 5 November 2020].

GSMA (2015) Women and Mobile Money: Insights from Kenya, GSM Association, London.

Hannig, A. and Jansen, S. (2010) Financial Inclusion and Financial Stability: Current Policy Issues [online], ADBI Working Paper No. 259 <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1729122> [accessed 12 April 2018].

Honohan, P. and King, M. (2012) ‘Cause and effect of financial access: cross-country evidence from the Finscope Surveys’, in R. Cull, A. Demirgüç-Kunt, and J. Morduch (eds), Banking the World: Empirical Foundations of Financial Inclusion, pp. 45–83, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Jack, W. and Suri, T. (2011) Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA, NBER Working Paper Series 16721 [online], National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA <https://doi.org/10.3386/w16721>.

Jack, W. and Suri, T. (2014) ‘Risk sharing and transactions costs: evidence from Kenya’s mobile money revolution’, American Economic Review 104(1): 183–223 <https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.1.183>.

Kodom, M., Ackah, C., Steel, W.F. and Bokpin, G.A. (2020) ‘Drivers of mobile financial inclusion in Ghana’, Enterprise Development and Microfinance 31(4): 226–53 <https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.20-00008>.

Lombe, M. (2013) ‘Financial promise for the poor: how groups build microsavings’, International Journal of Social Economics 40(3): 289–90 <https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291311291545>.

Mbithi, I. and Weil, D.N. (2014) Mobile Banking: The Impact of M-PESA in Kenya, National Bureau of Economic Research Working paper no. 17129 <http://www.nber.org/papers/w17129> [accessed 5 November 2020].

Must, B. and Ludewig, K. (2010) ‘Mobile money: cell phone banking in developing countries’, Policy Matters Journal 7(2): 27–33.

Oni, O. and Gasparri, A. (2022) ‘Ghana announces electronic levy: possible scenarios on the progress of digital financial inclusion’, 7 April 2022 [blog], UN Capital Development Fund <https://www.uncdf.org/article/7408/ghana-electronic-levy#:~:text=E%2Dlevy%20can%20result%20in,major%20contributor%20to%20national%20income> [accessed 4 May 2022].

Osei-Assibey, E. (2015) ‘What drives behavioral intention of mobile money adoption? The case of ancient susu saving operations in Ghana’, International Journal of Social Economics 42(11): 962–79 <https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-09-2013-0198>.

Ouma, S.A., Odongo, T.M. and Were, M. (2017) ‘Mobile financial services and financial inclusion: Is it a boon for savings mobilization?’ Review of Development Finance 7: 29–35 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rdf.2017.01.001>.

Ozili, P.K. (2018) Impact of Digital Finance on Financial Inclusion and Stability [pdf], MPRA Paper No. 85614, Munich Personal RePEc Archive <https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/85614/1/MPRA_paper_85614.pdf> [accessed 20 December 2018].

PricewaterhouseCoopers (2016) 2016 Ghana Banking Survey: How to Win in an Era of Mobile Money, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Ltd., Ghana.

Riddell, W.C. and Song, X. (2017) ‘The role of education in technology use and adoption: evidence from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey’, ILR Review 70(5): 1219–53 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793916687719>.

Riley, T.A. and Kulathunga, A. (2017) Bringing E-money to the Poor: Successes and Failures, Directions in Development – Finance, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Rogers, E.M. (1995) Diffusion of Innovations, 4th edn, Free Press, New York.

Sahay, R., Čihák, M., N’Diaye, P., Barajas, A., Mitra, S., Kyobe, A., Mooi, Y.N. and Yousefi, S.R. (2015) Financial Inclusion: Can It Meet Multiple Macroeconomic Goals? IMF Staff Discussion Note, SDN/15/17, IMF, Washington, DC.

Saliu, I. (2015) Assessing the Impact of Mobile Money Transfer Service on the Socioeconomic Status of the Mobile Money Vendors: Case of Kumasi Metropolis, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.

Serrao, M.V., Sequeira, A.H. and Hans, B. (2012) ‘Designing a methodology to investigate accessibility and impact of financial inclusion’ [online], Household finance e-journal-CMBO <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2025521> [accessed 23 April 2018].

Shem, A.O., Misati, R. and Njoroge, L. (2012) ‘Factors driving usage of financial services from different financial access strands in Kenya’, Savings and Development 36(1): 71–89 <https://doi.org/10.2307/savideve.36.1.71>.

Singh, R. and Roy, R. (2015) ‘Financial Inclusion: A Critical Assessment of its Concepts and Measurement’, Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management 5(1):12-18, <https://doi.org/10.5958/2249-7307.2015.00002.X.

Steel, W.F. and Andah. D.O. (2003) Rural and Microfinance Regulation in Ghana: Implications for Development and Performance of the Industry, Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 49, World Bank, Washington, DC.

UNSGSA, Better than Cash Alliance, UNCDF and World Bank (2018) Igniting SDG Progress through Digital Financial Inclusion [pdf] <https://www.unsgsa.org/files/1615/3738/5820/SDG_Compendium_Digital_Financial_Inclusion_September_2018.pdf> [accessed 4 November 2020].

Wilde, J. (2000) ‘Identification of multiple equation probit models with endogenous dummy regressors’, Economics Letters 69(3): 309-312, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1765(00)00320-7

Zimmerman, J.M. and Banerjee, S.S. (2009) Promoting Savings as a Tool for International Development: Spotlight on WOCCU’s MatchSavings.org, New American Foundation, Washington, DC.