Author: Dan Gendro

Security could derail mobile payments in Ghana

Mobile payments have been gaining strong attention all over the world. As consumers become more heavily reliant on their smartphones and tablets, their interest in a cashless society grows. Such is the case in the African country of Ghana. More consumers in Ghana are gaining access to mobile technology and the government has been fostering a dream of a cashless economy that it has expected to see come to fruition in the near future. Mobile payments make a home in a perilous landscape, however, and the digital world contains threats that could derail Ghana’s dream economy.

Mobile security systems are still very lax

As mobile payments become more common in Ghana, so too does hacking and fraud. Internet fraud is quite active in Ghana; somewhat more so than in other African countries. Government officials have not yet found a way to curb this fraud or mitigate the damage that can be caused by hackers and these threats have stymied the growth of mobile commerce throughout the country. Major security issues may indeed prevent Ghana from attaining its dream of a cashless economy.

Developing a cashless economy proves challenging

In order to develop a new and comprehensive monetary system, Ghana will have to find a way to make mobile payments secure. This is no small task, as security remains a major problem even for countries like the U.S. and China when it comes to the issue of mobile payments. Even large companies like Google and Samsung have yet to find a way to make mobile payments completely secure. The threats that exist in the digital space have not yet become enough to deter consumers, however, many of whom are willing to participate in mobile commerce regardless of the risks they face.

Cash holds an important place with many businesses

Security issues are not the only challenge that Ghana faces in its hopes of establishing a cashless economy. There is currently a large volume of currency in circulation throughout the country, which makes the transition away from cash somewhat difficult. Moreover, physical currency plays a big role in many aspects of business in the country. Some small businesses will only accept payments that are made with cash and refuse to embrace mobile payments in any way whatsoever.

Visitors to American websites are from tablets and smartphones almost half the time.

According to the report that was just published by comScore, 48 percent of the time that is spent at American retail websites comes from mobile commerce traffic originating on tablets and smartphones.

This figure identically reflects the American internet usage share from those devices, at 48 percent.

This is not the first research to makes this type of discovery. An additional recent study, conducted by Monetate, had discovered that mobile commerce made up 21 percent of all worldwide online shopping traffic. It indicated that American consumers are ahead of the curve in terms of focusing this activity through tablets and smartphones.

Another recent report has helped to identify the various reasons that mobile commerce is taking off.

That was conducted by BI Intelligence. They took a deeper look into the numbers that support this considerable growth. They also looked into specifically at areas of mobile commerce that are contributing to the growth, such as smartphone friendly coupons and catalogs.

Though tablet has a strong reputation as being one of the most important devices for mobile commerce, this research didn’t indicate that the contribution from that device was any greater than its ownership level. In fact, if anything, considering that there are 80 million tablet owners in the United States, this research suggested that the contribution was actually less than its availability.

That discovery from BI Intelligence supports what comScore has discovered, suggesting that when all is said and done, it is smartphone shoppers who are spending a larger amount of money over the span of a quarter than those who are hitting the mobile commerce websites using their tablets.

Even though there has been a massive influx of shoppers using mobile commerce, it is still desktop users who will be spending the most, according to this research. It remains the consumers using their laptops and desktop computers who will drop the most money while shopping online. In fact, during the first quarter of the year, they spent an average of $274 each, where the tablet shoppers spent an average of $91 and smartphone shoppers spent $139.