Money That Isn’t: A Qualitative Examination of the Adoption of the 1 Pesewa Coin and Biometric Payment Cards in Ghana

Dzokoto, Vivian; Asante, Rebecca; Aggrey, John K.

doi:10.1353/ghs.2016.0001

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Ceci reproduisait la rhétorique populiste de « kalabule », qui accusait les commerçants et autres détenteurs de capitaux privés des difÏcultés économiques du pays (Nugent, 1995). Ces dernières années, le développement des TIC a atteint son apogée avec le renforcement d'un programme de numérisation dont le vice-président est directement responsable, sous l'impulsion du premier système de paiement biométrique mondial (Breckenridge, 2010 ;Dzokoto et al, 2016 ;Thiel, 2021). Au titre de ces avancées figurent depuis peu la carte d'identité nationale biométrique (Thiel, 2020), les listes électorales biométriques (Piccolino, 2016) à l'État ghanéen colonial et postcolonial a toujours fait l'objet de négociations contextuelles sur le plan des frontières, des intérêts et des associations.…”

Section: Le Recensement D'après-guerre De 1948 : Migration Et Citoyen...unclassified

Une histoire politique du recensement au Ghana aux 20e et 21e siècles

Thiel

2022

statsoc

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A political history of the Census in Ghana in the 20 th and 21 st centuries RÉSUMÉ Le présent article étudie les recensements de population dans le Ghana colonial et post-colonial en montrant les inflexions et développements qu'y ont connus les outils de quantification. L'histoire de la quantification, comme l'a montré Emmanuel Didier en 2021, apporte un éclairage utile à l'étude de la transformation de la société car elle est consubstantielle au fondement même de la société. Ainsi, on a longtemps pensé que ces processus de quantification participaient conjointement à la constitution de différents types de « data subjects », les individus tels qu'ils sont identifiés au moyen de données selon la définition qu'en donne Evelyn Ruppert en 2008. Cet article explore les limites dans lesquelles le concept de « data subjects » s'applique au contexte postcolonial. Il accorde une attention particulière aux nécessités de réorganisation imposées par les évolutions technologiques et aux résistances constantes face à la puissance colonisatrice du processus de datafication.

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Section: Le Recensement D'après-guerre De 1948 : Migration Et Citoyen...unclassified

Une histoire politique du recensement au Ghana aux 20e et 21e siècles

Thiel

2022

statsoc

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“…The e-zwich card is a fingerprint-enabled debit card introduced in 2008, used to save money, pay for purchases, settle bills, and receive government payments. Yet, social and psychological factors initially hindered the adoption of the e-zwich card as a universal means of payment (Dzokoto et al 2016). Following Dzokoto et al (2016) consumers did not find the debit card to be transparent and falsely accused the technology for losses of funds.…”

Section: The Articulation Of Normative Gender Identities In the Financial Inclusion Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, social and psychological factors initially hindered the adoption of the e-zwich card as a universal means of payment (Dzokoto et al 2016). Following Dzokoto et al (2016) consumers did not find the debit card to be transparent and falsely accused the technology for losses of funds. The general mistrust in turn discouraged vendors from adopting the point of sale (POS) devices thereby further limiting the system's penetration (Dzokoto et al 2016).…”

Section: The Articulation Of Normative Gender Identities In the Financial Inclusion Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Dzokoto et al (2016) consumers did not find the debit card to be transparent and falsely accused the technology for losses of funds. The general mistrust in turn discouraged vendors from adopting the point of sale (POS) devices thereby further limiting the system's penetration (Dzokoto et al 2016). 4 In order to increase the adoption of the e-zwich payment system, it has more recently been linked to the public payroll system, the National Service Scheme, and the payment of welfare benefits in the government's Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program (LEAP) besides ensuring interoperability with other payment platforms, including mobile money applications.…”

Section: The Articulation Of Normative Gender Identities In the Financial Inclusion Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biometric payment and gendered kinds in Ghana

Thiel

2021

Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society

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This paper explores how biometric payment practices in Ghana reinforce historically grown, patriarchal frames of representing women's economic participation. As central modes of participation in social life, payment practices tie closely into national narratives of modernity and economic development. In this light, Ghana's current biometric identification agenda, of which biometric payment constitutes a central element, has come to associate female entrepreneurs with normative gender identities which question their discipline, autonomy, and meaningful contribution to the economy. Two different institutions seeking to classify Ghanaian women in the interest of altering their behavior will be at the heart of the discussion. In the first case, I will focus on development experts' routine representation of (Ghanaian) women as "dependent" on assistance. In the second case, I focus on the regulatory institutions of Ghana's financial sector and the pursuit to formalize what is generally framed as "deviant" female entrepreneurship. The article addresses how the articulation of these normative gender identities reproduces historically rooted conceptions of Ghanaian women's autonomy and economic participation, to the effect of their continued exclusion from relevant public decision-making processes. The paper finally explores the unconventional ways in which female Ghanaian entrepreneurs-turned-activists index emancipatory gender identities to seek recognition for their economic contribution.

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“…In line with the biometric verification of entitlements in the aforementioned government agencies, biometric identification technologies play an important role in the dispensing of government payments. Dzokoto et al (2016) describe how the world's first biometric banking card, the e-zwich card detailed by Breckenridge (2010), has not gained foothold in Ghanaian economic transactions largely due to socio-psychological reasons. From the perspective of consumers, the technology's alleged non-transparency triggered open distrust and accusations of financial losses, hampering as a result the further penetration of the system's POS devices.…”

Section: (Data) Frictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biometric identification technologies and the Ghanaian ‘data revolution’

Thiel

2020

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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In the global effort to strengthen national identification systems (SDG 16.9), biometric identification technologies and civil registration systems have been associated with different motives and applications, thus fuelling their competition for public attention and resources. The case of Ghana illustrates how these alternative systems, along with further sources of personal data, have recently been integrated into the larger political vision of a centralised, national population data system. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the paper traces the difficulties and institutional negotiations that accompany this integration into a centralised population data infrastructure. Acknowledging how sets of actors, infrastructures and power relations are layered onto each other to unintended effects, the article describes the historical process of institutional and infrastructural harmonisation in the production of biometric population registers in Ghana.

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Money That Isn’t: A Qualitative Examination of the Adoption of the 1 Pesewa Coin and Biometric Payment Cards in Ghana

Cited by 4 publications

References 27 publications

Une histoire politique du recensement au Ghana aux 20e et 21e siècles

Une histoire politique du recensement au Ghana aux 20e et 21e siècles

Biometric payment and gendered kinds in Ghana

Biometric identification technologies and the Ghanaian ‘data revolution’

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