People with disability and access to financial services: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of disability on access to financial services in Ghana. Data for the study is obtained from the seventh wave of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 7). We use instrumental variable (IV) regression approach to examine the effect of disability on the use of formal financial institutions and mobile money. We find that being disabled reduces the likelihood of having access and using any of the financial institutions or having at least a product/service with a bank. Further, our results show that while people with disability are less likely to use commercial bank (6.3%), rural bank (4.8%) and at least one financial service (6.3%), they are 53.7% more likely to use mobile money. Collaborative actions are needed to raise awareness on both mobile money and other Fintech solutions, and accessibility functions that can support the inclusion of persons with disabilities into the financial system. JEL Codes : G21, I12, J71