When the message excludes the customer: Insights from MTN’s tariff announcement on financial inclusion in Ghana

On Monday, May 25, 2026, MTN Ghana sent a text message to millions of customers announcing a 0.75 percent fee on wallet-to-bank transfers, set to take effect on June 1, 2026.

By Tuesday, May 26, 2026, the Bank of Ghana had stepped in and suspended the charge to allow for further consultation. The story moved fast; the headlines moved faster; and the public conversation focused mainly on the fee itself.

Yet beneath the noise sits a quieter question that deserves our full attention, and it has very little to do with percentages or caps. The real issue is how the message was delivered, who it was written for, and who it quietly left behind.

A Message Written for Some, Not All

The MTN text landed in inboxes in plain English, using technical terms like “wallet-to-bank transfers” and “0.75 percent per transaction, capped at GH₵5.” For an educated urban customer, the meaning was clear within seconds.

Yet for the market trader in Techiman who relies on a relative to read her messages, or the farmer in the Upper West who speaks Dagaare more comfortably than English, the message might as well have been written in code. These customers make up a large share of MTN’s user base, yet they were addressed as if they were not even in the room.

When communication assumes literacy that does not exist, it stops being communication and becomes exclusion dressed in corporate language.

Timing That Left No Room to Breathe

Even more troubling than the language was the timing of the announcement. Customers were given roughly six days to understand a major change to how their money would move, and that window slammed shut without any effort to explain, educate, or engage.

For a decision of this scale, six days is not notice but an instruction, and instructions do not build trust. A truly inclusive approach would have begun weeks earlier with radio discussions in local languages, community sensitization through agents, and clear breakdowns of what the fee would mean for different kinds of users.

None of that happened, and the silence around the rollout said more than the message itself.

The Withdrawal That Nobody Explained

When the Bank of Ghana suspended the fee on Tuesday, a real opportunity arose to model effective communication, yet that opportunity slipped away. Customers who received the original text were not sent a follow-up message explaining the suspension, its reasons, or what would happen next.

Many Ghanaians learned about the reversal only through news websites and radio chatter, which means the same exclusion that defined the announcement also defined the withdrawal.

If we are deliberate about financial inclusion, every customer who received the first message deserves a second one, written with the same urgency and far more care.

Communication Is the Backbone of Financial Inclusion

We often speak about financial inclusion as if it ends with handing someone a SIM card and a wallet, yet real inclusion lives inside how we speak to people once they are in the system. A customer who cannot understand a tariff message cannot consent to it, and a customer who cannot consent is not truly included.

Local languages, voice notifications, simplified summaries, and community engagement should no longer be treated as bonus features but as core obligations for any provider that serves millions of Ghanaians.

Conclusion

The MTN episode will fade from the news cycle within weeks, yet the lesson it leaves behind should not. Financial inclusion in Ghana will only become real when our communication catches up with our ambition, and that work begins long before any tariff takes effect.

Author

Dr. Genevieve Sedalo, Department of Marketing, University of Professional Studies. gdsedalo@gmail.com

المصدر: MyJoyOnline (GH)