By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Nov. 06, GNA – President John Dramani Mahama has held discussions with Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA) at the Presidency in Accra.
A statement issued by the Presidency said the President and the Queen discussed critical interventions needed to deepen financial health through tailored financial solutions for key sectors, including informal workers, women, and smallholder farmers.
The meeting highlighted key policy initiatives, including digital innovation, the need for data sharing across providers, and long-term savings and pensions, especially for informal sector workers, most of whom have no pension.
They also touched on simpler ways for customers to resolve complaints, stronger protection against fraud and scams, and financial products that help people save and insure against setbacks.
President Mahama spoke about the importance of expanding women’s access to finance, citing plans to establish a Women’s Development Bank, which would provide capital and guarantee mechanisms to help women grow businesses and increase their incomes.
He also spoke about efforts to make mortgage financing more affordable and expand financial inclusion by ensuring every Ghanaian captured in the National Identification database has a wallet on the card and improving access to the digital grid by upgrading rural telephony to 4G for reasonable access.
According to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025, 81 per cent of adults in Ghana had a financial account in 2024, up from 29 per cent in 2011.
Around one in three adults reported buying groceries on credit or paying for them later in the preceding year.
The discussion focused on how wider access to financial services can help people manage these pressures and build emergency savings to improve their financial health.
Queen Máxima said Ghana could build on its economic recovery to accelerate a national agenda on financial health, supporting families to meet everyday expenses, cope with unexpected shocks, invest for the future, and feel confident and secure in their financial lives.
She said this should inform Ghana’s next National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy, with clear goals and regular surveys to track progress.
“What is the whole purpose of financial services? It is to improve people’s livelihoods. You have also done a huge work on bringing price stability.” The Queen stated.
“And of course, with fiscal stability, banks will be confident and invest in the real economy with flexible terms. So, the issue is how do we intentionally look into financial health”, she explained.
Drawing on her financial health work in the Netherlands and a discussion with employees at HPW’s dried-fruit processing facility in Adeiso, Queen Máxima highlighted the role employers can play in supporting workers’ financial health.
She noted that financial stress can affect employees’ health, concentration, and performance at work.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei