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Good practice Imported

Ghana's Financial Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities Directive — A Central Bank Mandates Accessible Banking

Ghana · Accra · See the Ghana profile · See the Accra profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 39% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In January 2025 the Bank of Ghana became one of the first African central banks to bind every bank and financial-service provider in the country to accessible digital, mobile and physical banking for persons with disabilities, on a fixed compliance timetable.

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Bank of Ghana
Period
2025–2026
Keywords
banking, financial services, disability inclusion, fintech

Context

The Financial Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities (FIPD) Directive, issued by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in January 2025, requires every licensed bank and financial-service provider in the country to give disabled customers equitable, non-discriminatory access to products, services and premises -- explicitly including digital and mobile financial services, not only physical branches.

Activities

Concrete, dated obligations include designating and upgrading at least one fully accessible branch per operational zone by 31 December 2026, in line with the Ghana Standards Authority's built-environment accessibility standard; providing sign-language-trained staff and priority service; running disability-inclusion staff training at least twice a year; designing digital and mobile financial services for equitable access and placing ATMs at accessible heights; delivering PWD-focused financial-literacy sessions on a fixed 2026 schedule, then biannually; and submitting an annual compliance report to each institution's board and to the BoG. The Bank of Ghana has since issued a follow-up Implementation Framework clarifying how institutions should meet these requirements.

Conclusions

Because the directive's deadlines run through the end of 2026, no independent evaluation of its actual effect on account access or usage by persons with disabilities exists yet.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Requires every licensed bank/FSP to designate or upgrade at least one accessible branch per operational zone, provide sign-language-trained staff, adapt digital/mobile channels, and run biannual training and literacy sessions; institution-level costs are not quantified in public reporting.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Issued January 2025; phased deadlines run to 31 December 2026 (accessible branches, compliance reporting) with recurring biannual training/literacy obligations thereafter.
Staffing & skills
Bank of Ghana regulatory/supervisory staff, Sign-language-trained staff at each licensed bank, Disability-inclusion trainers running biannual staff training

Conditions for success

  • Fixed, dated compliance milestones (e.g. an accessible branch per zone by December 2026)
  • A follow-up Implementation Framework clarifying how institutions must comply
  • Mandatory annual compliance reporting to institutional boards and the regulator

Where it fits

Governance type
national financial regulator (central bank directive)
Scale
national, applies to all licensed banks and financial-service providers
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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