For decades, financial inclusion programmes in rural Africa have largely been measured by the number of loans disbursed, accounts opened or beneficiaries reached. Ghana’s Financial Inclusion for Last Mile Actors (FILMA) programme is attempting something more ambitious: transforming rural livelihoods into sustainable economic enterprises capable of generating income, creating jobs and building resilience against economic shocks.
Two years into its four-year implementation cycle, the programme is beginning to produce evidence that access to finance, when combined with skills development, market access and risk protection, can create lasting economic change in some of Ghana’s most underserved communities.
Implemented by Temple Investments in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and supported by a consortium that includes Catholic Relief Services (CRS), AV Ventures, SEND Ghana and Enterprise Life, FILMA targets 100,000 young people, particularly women and persons with disabilities, across 18 districts in the Volta, Oti, Bono East and Northern regions.
At its core is a focus on what development practitioners describe as “last-mile actors” — smallholder farmers, processors and traders who sit at the end of agricultural value chains and have historically been excluded from formal financial systems.
From Financial Exclusion to Economic Participation
The challenge confronting these communities has long been familiar.
Many rural entrepreneurs operate without collateral, formal banking histories or access to affordable credit. As a result, potentially productive businesses often remain trapped in subsistence cycles, unable to expand or create employment.
FILMA’s strategy seeks to tackle these barriers simultaneously.
According to programme data presented at the inaugural FILMA Learning Event in Accra, the initiative has already enrolled 77,868 last-mile actors, representing 78 percent of its overall target. More significantly, 44,476 young people have transitioned into what the programme describes as dignified and fulfilling work, with women accounting for 90 percent of that figure.
The economic impact is beginning to show.
Average monthly incomes among participants have more than doubled from GH¢1,334 at baseline to GH¢2,793, while the proportion of beneficiaries capable of independently accessing financial products has increased from just 3 percent to 38 percent.
These figures suggest that financial inclusion is evolving beyond access to credit into broader economic empowerment.
Building Resilience Beyond Farming
One of the programme’s distinguishing features is its effort to diversify rural incomes beyond traditional farming activities.
Agricultural incomes remain highly vulnerable to climate variability, market fluctuations and seasonal production cycles. Recognising this reality, FILMA has invested heavily in alternative livelihood opportunities designed to reduce risk and create additional income streams.
More than 1,000 beneficiaries have received training and equipment for beekeeping, while hundreds have been introduced to mushroom production and dry-season vegetable cultivation.
The objective is not simply income generation but resilience.
By enabling households to earn from multiple activities throughout the year, the programme reduces dependence on a single crop or harvest cycle and strengthens economic stability.
The Human Face of Transformation
Behind the statistics are stories that illustrate how access to financial knowledge and community-based savings structures can unlock opportunity.
Sakina, one of the programme’s beneficiaries, recounted how saving money had once seemed impossible as she struggled to manage small allowances from her parents. Through financial literacy training, she adopted a disciplined savings culture, regularly setting aside 30 percent of her income.
For university graduate Gifty, the challenge was different.
Unable to secure formal employment, she turned to mushroom farming in the Oti Region but lacked the capital needed to purchase critical production inputs. Initially sceptical about Voluntary Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), which she viewed as structures primarily for older community members, she eventually joined the initiative and mobilised other young people to form a savings group.
The pooled savings enabled members to access working capital without relying on traditional lenders.
Her experience highlights a recurring lesson emerging from rural finance programmes across Africa: local financial systems can often succeed where formal banking institutions struggle to reach.
Credit Alone Will Not Solve the Problem
Yet discussions at the learning event also underscored a growing recognition that access to finance, while necessary, is not sufficient.
Industry leaders warned that structural barriers continue to threaten the viability of local enterprises.
Caleb Edwards, Managing Director of WAMI AGRO, argued that local agricultural producers remain disadvantaged by market conditions that favour imports supported by cheaper foreign capital, subsidies and tax incentives.
According to him, local firms have suffered significant financial losses as a result, including job cuts linked to competitive pressures from imported products.
His message was clear: expanding credit without addressing market distortions could limit the effectiveness of financial inclusion programmes.
“Credit access will fail without corresponding market protection and hedging strategies,” he suggested.
The observation points to a broader policy challenge confronting Ghana and many African economies: how to strengthen local production while remaining integrated into global trade systems.
A New Model for Financial Inclusion
Financial institutions participating in the discussions acknowledged that lending to rural communities remains costly and risky.
Representatives from Absa and Maroon Capital highlighted the importance of digital lending technologies in reducing transaction costs but also pointed to high default rates as a continuing concern.
One institution revealed that loan defaults had resulted in a GH¢32 million impairment, underscoring the importance of borrower education, financial discipline and stronger data systems.
These discussions are increasingly shaping policy responses.
Representatives from the Bank of Ghana indicated that future financial inclusion efforts would move beyond broad gender-balance targets towards more comprehensive value-chain-based policies focused on women’s economic participation.
The Ministry of Finance also signalled plans to incorporate more practical and implementation-focused measures into the forthcoming National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy.
Women Driving Rural Transformation
While the programme targets multiple vulnerable groups, women remain central to its design.
Seventy percent of FILMA’s beneficiaries are women, reflecting both the economic realities of rural Ghana and the programme’s belief that empowering women generates wider community benefits.
Temple Investments Managing Director Cecilia Hesse described women not as beneficiaries but as the foundation upon which broader economic transformation is being built.
“For us at Temple, these women are not a video. They are the reason we are here. They are not characters in a story; they are the story,” she told participants.
Her remarks captured a broader shift occurring within development finance.
Success is increasingly being measured not by project expenditure or beneficiary counts alone, but by whether individuals are able to move from economic vulnerability to sustainable livelihoods.
A Test Case for Rural Economic Transformation
Perhaps the most significant aspect of FILMA is that it is designed as more than a development intervention.
It is being positioned as a test case for a new model of rural economic development — one that combines finance, insurance, entrepreneurship, skills development and market integration into a self-sustaining ecosystem.
If successful, it could provide valuable lessons for policymakers seeking solutions to youth unemployment, rural poverty and financial exclusion.
The programme’s early results suggest that economic resilience is built not merely through access to money, but through the creation of systems that enable people to earn, save, invest and withstand shocks.
For thousands of young women, farmers, traders and persons with disabilities across rural Ghana, that transition is already underway.
And in a country where inclusive growth remains one of the defining economic challenges of the decade, the success of initiatives such as FILMA may ultimately be measured not by the number of loans disbursed, but by the number of lives transformed.
