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Alex Taylor

Malacci Ohrt

The Client Protection Principles create a common framework for financial services providers (FSPs), policymakers, and clients to better understand and discuss consumer protection issues. While much of the financial inclusion industry’s work has focused on providers and regulators, there is a third, crucial constituency: the clients.
Often, efforts to involve clients in this conversation are often limited because consumers lack awareness of their rights and responsibilities when accessing financial services. In order to address this gap, the Smart Campaign led a multi-country initiative spanning three years to experiment with client engagement techniques, ranging from radio campaigns, social media, and journalist competitions.
This report will cover the Smart Campaign’s initiatives in Ghana, Uganda, and Benin. We will discuss country-specific consumer protection issues as well as the engagement approach for each campaign. Lastly, we will share the lessons learned across these markets and different approaches.

The rapid growth of digital financial services has introduced new opportunities and accompanied risks for first-time consumers of financial services. Many markets lack the guardrails to address these new risks, increasing the urgency to improve consumer protection practices at the provider level and to increase client awareness of their rights and responsibility. Against this backdrop, CFI conceived the protection radio campaigns to help mitigate risks and empower customers by means of educational programming.
The objective of this initiative was to experiment with different techniques to educate and empower clients. In many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, radio remains one of the most important widespread communications mediums, especially as internet and mobile connectivity has<a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/GSMA-State-of-Mobile-Internet-Connectivity-Report-2019.pdf"> grown inconsistently or remains too costly</a>. Ghana and Benin have one of the highest percentages of household radio ownership with 72 percent. In Uganda, household radio ownership is at 61 percent. Reported daily use in Africa of various media channels bears these stats out: 46 percent of Africans report accessing daily news through radio, 37 percent through television, while only 9 percent read newspapers. In contrast, mobile internet connectivity is only <a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/GSMA-State-of-Mobile-Internet-Connectivity-Report-2019.pdf">24 percent</a> in sub-Saharan Africa. Internet and mobile penetration are growing quickly in a few African countries, especially for urban citizens. In Ghana, mobile internet penetration is estimated to be <a href="https://www.gsma.com/subsaharanafrica/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2017-10-23-986feba592e4e9c07ff793916212eb66.pdf">45 percent</a>.
This context of shifting media landscapes, both across and within countries, encouraged us to use this initiative to explore different communications channels including radio, social media, and traditional media to reach the target audiences. In addition to exploring different communications channels, we also experimented with storytelling techniques, from radio interviews to dramas and animated shorts. For each country, we took a four-part approach to determine the appropriate components and strategy for raising financial consumer protection awareness based on market dynamics.

Over the years, Ghana has been home to political stability and increased economic growth. But despite this favorable environment, 24% of Ghanaians still live in poverty. On the one hand, Ghana’s financial inclusion sector has grown in its offerings of diverse products serving an increasingly wide range of clients. Regulators and ministries in Ghana have also put consumer protection at the forefront, through reformed frameworks on complaints and disclosure, emphasizing the importance of stronger client protection principles. On the other hand, Ghana’s microfinance sector underwent a tumultuous period, with the onset of collapsing institutions, Ponzi-schemes, loss of depositor’s money and the bank of Ghana revoking licenses from several institutions.
Against this backdrop, the aim of the Ghana radio campaign was to educate financial service consumers on their rights and responsibilities while also reinforcing the Bank of Ghana’s initiatives and policies on consumer protection.

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 Ghana’s Consumer Protection Landscape

To inform the design of the radio campaign, a National Advisory Council was assembled. This consisted of representatives from the Bank of Ghana, GHAMFIN, the Consumer Partnership, the Ministry of Finance, and CGAP, as well as financial technology companies including Dream Oval and Inclusive Financial Technologies. Through desk research, key industry insights and findings, the campaign sought to target microfinance users and leverage communication channels that provided the widest coverage to both urban and rural areas. With the majority of Ghana’s population being Twi and English speakers, the campaign was broadcasted in these languages. The 2 dominant radio stations, were selected based on their listernship – Adom for twi listeners and Citi for enlsigh.

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Benin’s Consumer Protection Landscape

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Everyone has a roll to play to improve financial consumer protection, including clients. This report covers lessons learned from three CFI initiatives to raise consumer awareness in Ghana, Benin, and Uganda.

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