Ghana just turned its national ID card into something most Africans have to walk into a bank, open an account, and wait weeks to get: the ability to make payments.

The Ghana Card, already used for SIM registration and passport applications, has been upgraded with a built-in digital wallet that lets holders withdraw cash from ATMs, pay in stores, shop online, and send money to over 200 countries.

To get started, existing cardholders simply activate the wallet through the MyCitizens App or by dialling *402#.

The driving force behind this move is financial inclusion. Credit card penetration in Ghana sat at just 0.6% in 2024 and was projected to keep falling; meaning most Ghanaians were locked out of basic financial services.

By attaching a wallet to a card that millions already carry, the government is trying to remove that barrier without requiring people to go through a bank first.

The Ghana Card was always designed with three functions in mind: identity, travel document, and payment tool. The identity layer has been active for years.

The e-passport function launched in 2022, giving the card passport recognition in 197 countries. The wallet is now the third and final piece.

What makes this model particularly interesting is that no single bank controls the wallet. It is designed as an open platform that different financial institutions can plug into, which could make it far more accessible than traditional banking infrastructure.

The ambitions go even further. Ghana's National Identification Authority has expressed interest in using the card as a platform for gold trading and tokenised transactions in partnership with the Ghana Gold Board, though it is unclear if that feature is live yet.

If this works at scale, Ghana may be quietly building a payments model that reduces dependence on Visa and Mastercard entirely, and one that other African countries will be watching closely.