Evolution of Inclusive Digital Commerce in Ghana
Although “cash is king” remains the mantra in many emerging markets, recent evidence suggests that small merchants benefit from using digital payments, especially in light of the challenging pandemic context. Although the benefits are now documented, we have found that using digital tools for commerce remains a pain point for most micro and small businesses.
Inclusive Digital Commerce (IDC) program’s work in Ghana using the Catalyst Accelerator model, over the past two years has found that while merchants widely use social media and digital payments, many activities like purchasing inputs, managing inventory, and making deliveries largely remain analog. Our work suggests that efforts to help small merchants take advantage of digital commerce are working, but that much more is needed to deliver on its promise.
