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Betting Culture: The High Stakes of Ghana’s Gaming Boom
By Steph Kumasi, Ghana — On a bustling street corner near Kejetia Market, a queue forms outside a brightly lit betting shop. Inside, 22-year-old Daniel Owusu hunches over his phone, refreshing a football live-score app. His ticket is riding on a Serie A match in Italy — and if Napoli wins, he walks away with ₵420. “This is how I make my lunch money,” he says, eyes glued to the screen. “Sometimes I win. Sometimes I don’t. But I always try.” Ghana’s betting industry has exploded in the past five years, driven by mobile phone penetration, youth unemployment, sports obsession, and fintech convenience. From Accra to Bolgatanga, betting kiosks and…
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Banking the Unbanked: Mobile Finance as a Lifeline
By Kwame Bolgatanga, Ghana — Under a baobab tree in the Upper East Region, 60-year-old Adiza Ibrahim punches numbers into her Nokia phone with focus. Seconds later, a text confirms her receipt of ₵150 via mobile money. The sender? Her son in Accra. “I don’t have a bank account,” she says in Mampruli through a translator. “But I can receive money on my phone.” Adiza is one of millions of Ghanaians who are part of a quiet financial revolution — where banks are not branches and wallets are not leather. Mobile finance has leapfrogged traditional banking, giving the unbanked unprecedented access to money services. The Unbanked Majority According to the…
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The Decline of Cash: Is Africa Ready for a Fully Digital Economy?
Byline: By Kwame Accra, Ghana — At a bustling roadside fruit stand in the suburb of Adabraka, 32-year-old trader Abena Owusu expertly arranges bunches of bananas and pineapples while checking her smartphone for mobile money alerts. “I hardly use physical cash anymore,” she says. “Most of my customers prefer to pay via Momo. It’s quicker, and I don’t have to keep too much change on me.” Once a luxury for the tech-savvy elite, digital payments have become a fixture of everyday life in many African cities. From market vendors to taxi drivers, the decline of cash is visible — and irreversible. But the rapid shift has also exposed deep gaps…