Households' ICT access and bank patronage in West Africa: Empirical insights from Burkina Faso and Ghana

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a crucial role on the individuals, businesses and the citizenry in a country. Some studies on ICT access tend to concentrate on the supply side of achieving universal access in ICTs. They do not look at the household demand side and how household access to ICTs enhances bank patronage and financial services. Thus, this study makes contribution by: a) focusing on the demand side of ICT access by households and how it fosters the patronage of financial services; b) investigating some of the socioeconomic characteristics that affect households' adoption of ICTs and bank patronage in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Demographic and Health Survey data for both Burkina Faso and Ghana 2014 was used with logit regression of bank patronage on socioeconomic variables and ICT equipment. The findings, inter alia, show that socioeconomic factors influence ICT adoption and bank services demand at the household level. However, the degree differs significantly between Burkina Faso and Ghana. In essence, whereas only 15% of the surveyed households own bank account in Burkina Faso, the figure for Ghana was more than thrice with 48% of the household owning bank account. Thus, policy should be tailored towards the provision and accessibility of ICTs to households which could enhance their desire for bank patronage as they become more informed on the relevance.