Societe Generale Ghana introduces mobile money services

Societe Generale (SG) Bank has intimated that it will introduce mobile money services in the coming weeks to augment its operations in Ghana.

Managing Director of the Bank, Sionle Yeo, made this known in Accra during an event organized to celebrate the bank’s most loyal customers.

“The mobile money platform is a good thing and we, at SG Bank, would love to leverage on this innovation to improve the lives of our clients and customers,” he said.

The event, which formed part of the bank’s activities to mark the customer service week, brought together customers who had been with the bank for two to four decades.

Ghana’s banking landscape has in recent weeks seen growing divergence through traditional banking to the mobile money sector largely controlled by telecommunications companies due to the large number of people, who opt for mobile money services.

One unique feature of the mobile money service is the ease and convenience with which customers are able to transact their financial activities from anywhere they find themselves, a sharp contrast to traditional banking where customers normally have to walk to banking halls to queue for their financial transactions.

Mr Yeo noted that the introduction of the mobile money service was necessitated by the fact that only 30 percent of Ghanaians have bank accounts but almost all Ghanaians have mobile phones.

He also noted that this would provide a chance for most of the transactional and economic sectors of Ghana to be formalized.

“The mobile money platform provides an avenue for the government to achieve a more formalized economy, since almost all Ghanaians own mobile phones. It gives an opportunity for almost all transactions to be traceable, which is good for the government and the country as a whole,” he noted.

The bank also promised to roll out premier banking for its affluent clients and an app for electronic transactions.