Michael Grantson is the Country Head for Kirusa in Ghana. In an exclusive interaction, he reveals pungent lessons about life, the prospects and rate of adoption of technology in Ghana, how businesses can leapfrog their communications using Kirusa.
Mr. Grantson describes himself as follows: “I am very passionate about my work, extremely ambitious and driven. Also, I like to be organized and result oriented. I’m a people’s person and an excellent communicator who enjoys public speaking. I tend to make friends quite easily. I am also very passionate about God and my family. People are central to every organisation’s success and in many cases they determine the fortune of establishment, hence, every manager needs to be people-oriented and every business must reach out, with people in mind.” Mr. Grantson earned a Marketing Degree from the Central University Ghana and a Post Graduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing from the United Kingdom and he has been working for 18 years.
His 18 years Work Experience
I have been working for the last 18 years, of which the last 6 years has been at top level management. My experience spans in varied fields such as Advertising, Technology Sales, Mobile Financial Services (MFS) and Telecommunications. I think my time with Mobile Financial Services has been quite unique in my work experience. Mobile wallets saddled with SMS notification has brought about a paradigm shift in the deployment of financial services and greatly deepened financial inclusion to the underbanked. In a nutshell, Fintech has single handedly, supported the drive of most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
His view on the Ghanaian Technology/Telecom Space
My experience in the tech space has mainly been with the telecommunication and fintech space. Technology has led to a significant change in the financial sector, we are seeing now. Today, Ghana is the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa due to technology advancements. I personally think the biggest enabler to business efficiency and productivity in every enterprise is through technology. The long-term benefits of investing in technology far outweighs the installation cost and its operation.
And how Kirusa contributes to the Tech/Telecom Space in Ghana
Kirusa Konnect is one of the services that Kirusa Ghana offers. It is a cloud-based Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) is poised to bolster customer engagement for enterprises in Ghana. It supports businesses with the most appropriate communication channels and services which enable them to connect with and reach out to more customers effectively. I think Kirusa Konnect will be critical in providing businesses in Ghana with capabilities to engage with their customers over mobile channels through messaging, voice and rich media tools. The self-serve portal facilitates instant, two-way and interactive communication allowing businesses to conceive, execute and monitor customized communication campaigns. It is safe to say that Kirusa simply works.
Kirusa can help in the following ways:
A. Financial Services – We are going to be a huge part of the Financial Evolution happening in the Ghanaian market. Today, no financial service provider can close a transaction without sending an electronic notification of that transaction. It’s the biggest security check for the consumer now and Kirusa is at the forefront of this
B. Healthcare – We are also very involved in Healthcare field. Our systems are being used to notify customers of the expiry of their medication and when they will run out
C. mAgri – We are also using our technology to support Agriculture. Today, farmers can get extension services at the click of a button on their phone through our technology
D. Special Needs Persons – Today, with our IVR services, visually impaired persons can also do financial services without the aid of a 3rd party. This will significantly reduce the risk of fraud
E. Enterprises – Our SnapCall and Outbound dialing will be extremely essential to the digital strategy of all businesses. We will give these enterprises the ability to reach their mass market with product knowledge and subscription campaigns at the click of a button
F. IP Messaging – Our IP Messaging platforms i.e. RCS (Rich Communication Services) solutions will be a game changer. As people move to OTT apps, it will be critical that communication moves along that tangent in order to keep people engaged. Kirusa has the technology, expertise and knowledge to make this happen for any enterprise.
What factors hinder rate of adoption of Technology in Ghana?
Most people are still not very tech savvy, and this makes people very skeptical about the use of new technology. However, if they get to know and understand the benefits of that technology, they tend to adopt it.
I think the creation of awareness is very critical, from knowing about a product to becoming frequent users of that technology. Developers should never forget to get the opinion of the “will be users” of the technology they are building and inculcate it into their product development.
Optimistic about the future of technology in Ghana
I think a lot of development is being done without the users’ involvement and this makes adoption after deployment quite difficult. I feel as if we should get a lot of feedback from user groups during the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) stage, in order to make technology acceptability easy and immediate after deployment.
