Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) remains indispensable
The world of digitalisation appears to be on steroids, with ideas popping up faster than mushrooms after a good light rain overnight.
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Again, it is much easier to be regarded out of date or beyond the limits of practical and technological uses in a short period of time.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, on the other hand, remains vital as it is used alongside cutting-edge technologies. With a name that is a little too complicated to remember, they have been known as USSD!
Throughout Africa, the technology is still popular and useful because the world and the world of technology are always on a path to make everything easy; all for greater efficiency and, eventually, the good of the human race.
USSD, commonly known as short codes in the UK, is significantly less prevalent and returning to old habits may be a step forward into something new every now and then, especially when our part of the globe isn't moving at the same rate.
Every time a cell phone's keypad is used, a USSD transaction is initiated by typing a command that begins with a star (*), is followed by a series of digits, such as 920, and is terminated with an octothorpe, hash, or pound (#).
Financial transactions
An estimated 94 per cent of financial transactions are completed via USSD, and it should be noted that the use of USSD technology is escalating and expanding financial activities in Ghana.
The technology enabled the financial inclusion of about 7.3 million Ghanaians (as of 2018) who are unbanked and primarily live in rural or low-income regions.
As of 2018, the technology had enabled the financial inclusion of around 7.3 million Ghanaians who were previously unbanked and mostly lived in rural or low-income areas.
Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is an example of how technology may be used to reach the unbanked.
On the topic of transaction, the usage of Blockchain technology in transactions, notably financial and digital transactions, has increased in recent years.
It is possible to conceive or surmise that this burst of innovation may almost instantly render previous technologies, such as USSD technology, obsolete and, quite frankly, dead!
But immediate need to provide money to severely marginalised low-income populations (Migrant settings, refugee camps, and other locations of asylum), all of a sudden, became clear based on two persistent difficulties that might stick around and sabotage that endeavour.
The first issue is that low-income and underprivileged populations rarely have access to the gadgets, internet, and electricity needed to reasonably access, learn, and operate fancy technology payment systems.
Second, the majority of the people (those earning less than the minimum wage, refugees, migrants, and other Persons of Concern) did not have bank accounts to begin with, which means that even if money was sent to them via modern technology, how would they use it? What would they do if they cashed it out?
They would not be able to, according to the answer. It would remain numbers on a screen or in an account, virtually as ineffective to them as a vehicle battery without a car - clever but woefully mistimed!
During the peak of COVID-19, it looked that the only method to receive much-needed cash was through mobile money.
In Ghana, Mobile Money, popularly known as MoMo, has an extremely large user base (about 40.9 million registered users).
Mobile money value
Africa currently accounts for 70 per cent of the world's $1 trillion mobile money value. The value of Africa's mobile money transactions increased 39 per cent to $701.4 billion in 2021 from $495 billion in 2020, indicating that mobile banking is the future of African banking.
According to GSMA numbers issued on April 21, the volume of mobile money transactions increased by 23% to 36.7 billion in 2021 from 27.5 billion in 2020.
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During the review year, Africa's registered mobile wallets surpassed 621 million, a 17 per cent rise from the 562 million recorded in 2020.
Onyango state that on the continent, there are now over 184 million active mobile money wallets, up from 161 million accounts little over a year ago.
As much as the future is mobile, millions of Africans still think of mobile money as USSD.
We often ignore the ways in which new and old technology can safely collaborate to generate innovations and solve real-world problems for real people during and after adversity.
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We often ignore the ways in which new and old technology can safely collaborate to generate innovations and solve real-world problems for real people during and after adversity.
A good illustration of this operating in practise occurred in 2020 during COVID-19, when refugees, migrants, and those earning less than the minimum wage needed money to survive and maintain themselves.
Finally, money from various organisations was transferred to the mobile money accounts of the aforementioned persons who required it to survive. Users merely needed to phone a short code to gain immediate access to actual money. Quick, efficient, and user-friendly.
This is why I'm banking on USSD.