Comment on Apiors, E.K.; Suzuki, A. Mobile Money, Individuals’ Payments, Remittances, and Investments: Evidence from the Ashanti Region, Ghana. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1409

Abstract

Using primary, individual-level survey data for Ghana, Apiors and Suzuki find, among other things, that mobile money use is not dependent on financial status and that mobile money users save more. This note argues that both conclusions have validity issues.

Response to Comments by Leo Van Hove on “Mobile Money, Individuals’ Payments, Remittances, and Investments: Evidence from the Ashanti Region, Ghana” Sustainability 2018, 10, 1409

“…Thirdly, similar to the previous point, while the author of [1] refers to TBILL4ALL (Treasury Bill For All) many times in his comments, in our original paper we refer to TBILL4ALL as one of the possible investment activities that an individual could participate in. It is important to note that the investment activity we looked at is not only restricted to one activity on the mobile money platform, but it also encompasses the totality of their micro business investment activities.…”

“…The second concern raised in Reference [1] is that while mobile money savings require a mobile money account, our paper examines the effect of mobile money use on savings, and that is not valid. However, we do not agree with this concern for the following three reasons.…”

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We very much appreciate Leo Van Hove for the comment of Reference [1]. Below are our replies to the two comments received.

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M-PESA and Financial Inclusion in Kenya: Of Paying Comes Saving?

“…Clearly, this approach allows to examine only steps two and three of our set-up. Crucially, one should refrain from generalised conclusions such as "financial status is not a significant indicator in determining who participates in mobile money" [44] (p. 6)-because 'financial status' may well have an impact on mobile phone ownership in (the invisible) step one [45] (see also [23] (p. 172)). Finally, there are also authors who simply ignore the preconditions: in their regressions for the saving behaviour of Kenyan households, Ouma et al [38] do not control for ownership of a mobile phone or a SIM card.…”