The rapid growth of digital financial services (DFS) has introduced new opportunities for first-time consumers, but not without some risk. Many markets lack the guardrails to address these new risks, increasing the urgency to improve client awareness of their rights and responsibilities. Against this backdrop, CFI conceived of consumer protection radio campaigns to educate and empower customers and help mitigate risks with educational programming.

The objective of this initiative was to experiment with and learn from different techniques to educate and empower clients. In many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, radio remains one of the most important widespread communications mediums, especially as internet and mobile connectivity has grown inconsistently or remains too costly. Ghana and Benin have some of the highest percentages of household radio ownership at 72 percent. In Uganda, household radio ownership is at 61 percent. Reported daily use of various media channels in Africa bears these stats out: 46 percent of Africans report accessing daily news through radio, 37 percent through television, while only 9 percent read newspapers. In contrast, mobile internet connectivity is only 24 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, internet and mobile penetration are growing quickly in a few African countries, especially for urban citizens. In Ghana, mobile internet penetration is an estimated 45 percent.

This context of shifting media landscapes, both across and within countries, encouraged us to use this initiative to explore different communications channels including radio, social media, and traditional media to reach the target audiences. In addition to exploring these communication channels, we also experimented with storytelling techniques, from radio interviews to dramas and animated shorts. For each country, we took a four-part approach to determine the appropriate components and strategy for raising financial consumer protection awareness:

In recent years, financial inclusion has increased in Ghana, especially with the expansion of DFS. Growing from an estimated 150,000 active users in 2011 to more than four million in 2015, access to DFS is steadily increasing the number of formally banked people. Despite this progress, consumer protection issues persist and continue to pose risks to clients.

Ghana’s inclusive finance sector experienced a fragile period with the collapse of numerous financial institutions and the dismantling of several Ponzi schemes, all of which forced the Bank of Ghana to revoke licenses from several institutions. In addition, mobile money risks such as fraud continue to put consumers in harm’s way. This situation has led to confusion and distrust among consumers and as a result, regulators in Ghana are putting consumer protection at the forefront of their agenda.

Against this backdrop, CFI, in partnership with the Financial Inclusion Forum Africa, conceived the You Deserve to Know campaign, to raise awareness of consumer protection issues while reinforcing the Bank of Ghana’s policies on consumer protection.

To inform the design and content of the radio campaign, CFI partnered with the Financial Inclusion Forum Africa and assembled a NAC for Ghana. The NAC consisted of representatives from the Bank of Ghana, Ghana Micro-finance Institutions Network (GHAMFIN), the Consumer Partnership, the Ministry of Finance, and CGAP. Financial technology companies were also represented, including Dream Oval, Inclusive Financial Technologies, and MTN. Through desk research, fraud, transparency, client recourse, and responsible borrowing emerged as the dominant consumer risks in Ghana’s financial services landscape.

The goal of #YouDeservetoKnow was to reach as many listeners as possible and to test out the effectiveness of radio as a means of communicating with clients. The program was broadcast in two of Ghana’s dominant languages, English and Twi, and radio stations were subsequently selected for their reach and dedicated listenership in these languages. The English language audience on Citi FM averaged 218,250 listeners per episode, while the Twi version of the campaign aired on Adom FM, garnering an average of listenership close to 151,100 per episode. Though coverage was extensive, the audience of these radio stations is concentrated in urban areas, whereas rural clients are harder to reach due to limited radio station access.

To complement the live shows, five-minute radio dramas were created with a variety of characters experiencing the consumer protection risks identified at the outset. While highlighting risks, each drama also ended with lessons that consumers could take away. Each week, the program would begin with a short radio drama introducing the relevant theme, followed by an interview between the radio station host and an expert. The campaign spanned 13 weeks with three episodes dedicated to each of the four themes with a final compilation episode. Pre-recorded jingles aired in tandem with the radio dramas.

Outreach efforts for #YouDeservetoKnow began with a launch event in Accra attended by financial inclusion leaders and media representatives. Due to its placement on leading radio stations, the campaign received extensive media coverage, appearing in prominent news outlets such as Pulse, Graphic Online and Citi Newsroom.

The marketing approach for the campaign primarily utilized social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter. The aim was to engage listeners not only with audio broadcast on radio, but also with visual multimedia content posted on social media in advance of each broadcast.

The campaign leveraged Adom FM’s 640,871 Facebook followers and Citi FM’s 1,143,902 Facebook followers and 987,300 Twitter followers. Working with a Ghanaian media firm called NoKhroma Collective, a combination of animated videos, illustrations, and calls-to-action were created to drum up interest in the radio campaign. Additonally, working with survey company Geopoll, we sent SMS blasts to 16,000 mobile subscribers in Ghana, encouraging them to tune in.

Geopoll’s audience measurement tool was used to gather data on radio listenership trends during the campaign broadcast. Through a unique mobile-based methodology, Geopoll estimated ratings at the end of each episode, giving further insights on reach and themes of interest.

With an average listenership of 218,250 people per episode during the span of the campaign, responsible borrowing, recourse and fraud were the most popular episodes on Citi FM. Adom FM generated an average listenership of 151,083 people per episode, with fraud and transparency as the most popular.

Benin’s inclusive finance sector has weathered a number of shocks over the last decade that have undermined consumer confidence, leading Beninese authorities to put a higher priority on improving consumer protection. Currently, only 38 percent of Beninese adults have access to a formal bank account. The growth of DFS has been inconsistent, with mobile money reaching 40 percent of the adult population, and only 16 percent in rural areas. Consumers still face issues of fraud and incomprehensibility as regional and national regulatory bodies lack enforcement mechanisms for consumer protection violations.

In 2010, Benin’s financial sector underwent a tumultuous period, as a government investigation uncovered the biggest Ponzi scheme in the nation’s history. The Investment Consultancy and Computing Services (ICC Services), an unlicensed financial institution, defrauded nearly 150,000 individuals of over US$260 million. Since this scandal, the Ministry of Finance implemented a zero-tolerance policy, employing regulatory safeguards such as tightened licensing requirements to hold financial institutions accountable. But as unauthorized microfinance institutions are increasingly saturating the market, regulatory bodies are finding it challenging to maintain supervisory control.

To contribute to ongoing consumer protection efforts, we designed the A L’ecoute du Client radio campaign as an educational tool targeting both clients and microfinance institutions (MFIs). Unlike the approach in Ghana, this campaign experimented with outreach tactics to reduce the cost of reaching different audiences across a fractured media landscape. Partnering with local journalists who worked for a variety of radio stations and news outlets in multiple dialects was a key part of our strategy to create additional content that would live beyond the radio episodes.

CFI’s 2015 Client Voices Benin research surveyed consumers to identify the risks, issues, and harms they face when accessing financial services, with a focus on low-income individuals. The report found transparency, fraud, recourse, and responsible borrowing as the main challenges affecting consumers in Benin.

To check that these issues still resonate in Benin today, CFI convened and consulted with a local NAC consisting of regulators, public sector institutions, and financial service providers to inform the campaign’s messaging. Members included representatives from UNCDF, Consortium Alafia, the Agence Nationale de Surveillance des SFD (ANSSFD), Djondo Management & Development (DMD) and Développement international Desjardins (DID).

The campaign partnered with Radio Tokpa because of the station’s broadcast coverage in Southern Benin, where there is a high concentration of MFIs that serve the target audience. The program aired in French and Fon, Benin’s dominant languages. The French language program was broadcast on the segment “Caravane du Matin” and the Fon version on “Contact Fon.”

The campaign also featured one-minute public service announcements to share institution contact information that consumers could use to lodge a complaint or verify that a provider is licensed. Each week, A L’ecoute du Client began with these public service announcements introducing the relevant theme, followed by an interview between the radio station host and an expert. For eight weeks, the radio station hosted two live episodes each week in both languages.

With guidance and insights from local media consultants, 19 Beninese journalists, speaking various dialects, were selected to compete in the creation of unique educational content, aired on their respective radio shows.

To kick off the competition, the journalists attended a one-day training on the Client Protection Principles and Client Voice findings. They were then tasked with creating 15-minute radio productions on one of the four themes of the campaign: fraud, transparency, recourse, and responsible borrowing. Journalists were also challenged to find innovative ways to further educate consumers.

A panel of in-country judges made up of NAC members selected the winners of the competition during an award ceremony in Cotonou, Benin, attended by regulators and representatives of financial service providers. In total, participating journalists submitted over 54 entries, in four languages (French, Goun, Mina, and Dendi). The winning entry from Jessica Gauthe included two radio programs, one television news report, a Facebook Live event at the Dantokpa market, and content shared on Facebook and WhatsApp.

The journalist competition allowed us to multiply our outreach efforts in a more cost-effective, sustainable way. While the A L’ecoute du Client campaign ran for only eight weeks, these journalists now have consumer protection training that they continue to share with their peers in addition to covering stories that raise awareness of consumer protection in Benin.

Financial inclusion is on the rise in Uganda: 58 percent of adults have access to financial services in 2018, compared to 28 percent in 2009. This improvement was largely driven by the uptake of mobile money services, which launched in Uganda in 2009.

In light of this progress, the Bank of Uganda (BoU) is aiming beyond access towards the goal of “reducing poverty and enhancing the economic security of families through usage of affordable financial services.” Consequently, the BoU launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2017, demonstrating its commitment to financial literacy and consumer protection. Despite regulatory efforts, the proliferation of digital financial services has also led to consumer harm in the areas of product and service transparency, mobile money fraud, risk of over-indebtedness, and access to recourse mechanisms.

CFI partnered with the Association of Microfinance Institutions Uganda (AMFIU) to implement the #ProtectThatCash radio campaign. The aim of the campaign was to complement efforts by the BoU to educate consumers on their financial rights and responsibilities and help mitigate consumer harm.

To guide the final installment of the radio campaign series, CFI, in partnership with the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU), assembled a NAC with leaders from the Global Banking Alliance for Women, New Faces, New Voices (Uganda chapter), the Consumer Education Trust (CONSENT), and the Bank of Uganda.

We organized a workshop in Kampala to inform the design and content of the Uganda radio campaign. This brought together members of the NAC, media, and financial institution representatives, as well as staff from the Communication for Development Foundation Uganda (CDFU) who were contracted to design and implement the radio program. At the conclusion of the workshop, the 20+ participants identified fraud, responsible borrowing, transparency, and mobile money security as the main consumer protection challenges Ugandans face.

The 2018 Finscope study found that women in rural areas of Uganda are disproportionately represented among those without access to formal financial services. Thus, the Protect That Cash campaign had a narrow target audience, focusing on women in Western and Central Uganda. In order to maximize geographic reach, the campaign engaged two nationally broadcasted radio stations: Radio Simba with an estimated listenership of 2,823,020 and CBS with 4,126,040 listeners. Both programs broadcast in Luganda.

#ProtectThatCash started with a short drama designed with a female protagonist named Naki to resonate with female listeners. The drama was followed by an interview between the radio station host and an expert. Listeners were also given the opportunity to call in with questions during the live show.

NAC feedback identified the need for greater access to reliable recourse channels. Specifically, consumers often did not know where to go to complain or resolve disputes with DFS providers. In response, the campaign advertised AMFIU’s toll-free hotline to consumers through multiple media channels. The campaign also utilized CDFU’s toll-free hotline as a support tool for consumers for the duration of the campaign. These toll-free hotlines were advertised at the end of each drama and on the live shows. The radio program spanned eight weeks, during which the CDFU and AMFIU toll-free hotlines remained accessible to provide listeners with more information and counselling. Listeners shared some of the following concerns:

The Protect That Cash campaign disseminated SMS messages in Luganda, using the AMFIU client database of 2,035 contacts. Messages were sent a day prior to the radio program to remind listeners to tune in.

The campaign also opted for print advertising by creating posters to garner interest. A total of 78 posters were distributed to mobile money agents to display on their kiosks. Each poster included the consumer risk to be addressed that the week and the CDFU and AMFIU toll free numbers.

One need that arose while designing the campaign was to engage agents in the conversation. This was done through mobile money agent groups on WhatsApp.

The campaign also engaged two community monitors whose responsibilities were to monitor radio broadcasts of the program, ensuring that the programs aired as per broadcast schedule, and to speak to community members to hear their stories and gauge reactions to the campaign. The CDFU toll-free line was also used to engage with listeners and hear their feedback. The lines were available throughout the duration of the campaign during business hours. The following is a breakdown of caller trends by gender, age range, and issues discussed.

Our pilot consumer protection campaigns in Ghana, Benin, and Uganda helped us evolve our approach to radio and multimedia campaigns. Across the three markets, regulators, industry associations, and consumer advocacy groups expressed demand for continued awareness-raising initiatives, particularly focused on educating consumers about their rights and responsibilities. Feedback from clients during the campaigns highlighted persistent questions related to transparency, product safety, and fraud, as well as the need for advice on seeking appropriate redressal from financial service providers. Above all, we learned there is no one-size-fits-all approach to raising consumer protection awareness among clients.

Radio is a key information source in African countries and listenership data gathered from the campaigns showed substantial coverage, with over two million listeners reached per show. Calls from listeners during the live shows and on the toll-free hotlines, in addition to feedback given to community monitors, demonstrate the potential for audience engagement through this medium. We believe that radio can be an effective channel in rolling out future awareness campaigns, and we offer the following recommendations for how to design radio-based awareness campaigns.

Selecting partners that are representative of a country’s media and financial services landscape ensures a diversity of expert opinions and local insights. Our approach to each campaign began with forming local advisory councils, which included regulators, FSPs, media, and public sector institutions. These advisory councils weighed in on the goals and design of the campaigns.

Working with a local implementing partner was also helpful in getting a read of the landscape and managing the broadcasts on the ground. In Ghana, partnering with the Financial Inclusion Forum Africa was vital in managing relationships with radio station hosts and experts, and sourcing the right consultants for content production. In Uganda, engaging with the Communication for Development Foundation Uganda (CDFU) allowed for a centralized process to contract and monitor radio stations, guide experts, and produce the dramas. In addition, the Association for Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU) provided quality checks of our scripts and materials, drove marketing efforts to get people to tune in through relationships with mobile money agents, and helped to target publicity effectively in local dialects. In Benin, we collaborated with two individual media consultants to reach out to their local networks and devise and drive interest in the journalist competition.

Our partners shared ownership over the content and success of the campaigns, which has led them to explore ways to repackage and continue to make use of the content. The Bank of Ghana and the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) both expressed interest in taking the program forward by using campaign content as an educational tool for their clients. Journalists in Benin continue to engage their respective audiences.

Market insights and analysis of local consumer protection risks were essential to ensure that campaign messaging was relevant. Through workshops led by the CFI team, NAC members identified thematic areas specific to the local markets. For instance, the Benin campaign spent an episode on how to identify legitimate, licensed FSPs because clients had specifically identified this challenge in our survey research. For the Uganda campaign, analysis from AMFIU’S complaint database and market interventions shed light on the risks associated with mobile money penetration. Consumers expressed uncertainty navigating the digital landscape, which surfaced the need to create awareness on consumer protection among mobile money agents.

To select effective engagement channels, it is important to identify and understand your target audience. Experimenting with outreach methods, the campaigns employed various channels to reach intended audiences.

The Ghana radio campaign’s aim was to reach as many clients as possible. As such, the campaign relied heavily on Facebook and Twitter, as well as SMS dissemination to reach a wide audience.

In Benin, the campaign targeted MFI clients and utilized a decentralized approach with the journalist competition. Nineteen journalists engaged in the competition and disseminated content on their individual local radio stations, expanding our audience to millions more listeners. The journalists also created a Facebook page to continuously engage audiences. Finally, the journalists went into marketplaces to further educate consumers on their rights. Using a diverse set of local journalists and their channels was an effective and sustainable approach in reaching the target demographic.

The Uganda campaign sought to focus on female mobile money clients in rural areas and made use of traditional approaches such as radio, disc jockey engagement, and advertising. Mobile money agents also displayed posters on their kiosks to create awareness among the target audience. In addition, SMS messages were disseminated to contacts listed in the AMFIU client database a day prior to the live shows.

Clear branding and messaging guidelines are important to share with partners in order to avoid misrepresentation. The campaign employed various message-alignment tactics to ensure information consistency. For all three campaigns, radio hosts were trained on the Client Protection Principles. Hosts and experts were also given talking points ahead of the live shows to ensure structured discussions. Audience engagement messages shared via SMS, social media platforms, and print ads were also vetted by CFI. In Benin, journalists were trained on the Client Protection Principles prior to the competition. In Uganda, hotline counselors managing the toll-free hotlines were also trained on the principles and provided with an FAQ guide to help answer caller queries. Community monitors were also sensitized prior to campaign roll out.

We employed various cost-effective monitoring and evaluation tools to measure campaign reach. Radio stations are set up to measure their audience and provide listenership estimates, so that worked well for all three campaigns. Additional resources allowed for Ghana’s campaign to make use of Geopoll’s audience measurement tool, which provided further insights into demographic trends. Audience engagement was also measured through built-in analytics tools provided by social media and SMS dissemination platforms. Utilizing CDFU’s existing hotline, the Uganda campaign documented hotline caller trends, which were broken down by region, age, gender, and topic. This was a cost-effective approach to understand how the campaign was resonating with listeners.

As developing markets work towards responsible financial inclusion, increased efforts to empower clients on their rights and responsibilities is needed to foster a healthy financial ecosystem. We hope that future initiatives can build on these consumer awareness campaigns and. The success of these initiatives will rely on sustainable partnerships and creative tactics to reach consumers in their own voice.

Ghana

Quartz Africa

The World Bank

Benin

The World Bank

UNCDF