How To Build Trust In Your Online Business
When somebody goes online to search for products or services, they are instinctively suspicious. This is even the case with big, multinational brands. Most people are fairly educated about the way in which the web works, and they understand that just about anybody can set up a website. Even if your business is Nike, the people that visit your website will always be on the lookout for signs that you may be an imposter.Of course, suspicion is never helpful when you are trying to secure a sale. It is your task to convince potential customers that you can be trusted. Unfortunately, they rarely give you more than a few minutes to convince them that you are a legitimate, responsible business that can deliver on all of its promises.If you sell products, customers want to be absolutely sure that you will dispatch items quickly and they will be received as described. If you sell services, your potential clients need to believe that you can do the things that you claim.In both cases, customers often need to be persuaded that they can trust you with their confidential payment details.In this article, you will discover just how crucial it is for you to be build trust on the Internet if you hope to turn your business into a success. Read on to learn why trust is so important, the disastrous consequences of getting it wrong, and some practical ways to get it right.Customers See Your Online Business As Smoke and MirrorsImagine that you are walking the high street searching for books when you see a sign stuck to a door. It says ‘Cheap Books Here!’ and so you go inside, briefly noticing the name of the shop at the top of the window.Once inside, you realise that the shop is empty. There is nothing more than a curtain in the corner of the room. A voice echoes from behind it.”What book are you looking for?” it booms.You respond into the air.”Yes, we’ve got that one. £10 please.” A hand creeps around the curtain, waiting to take your money.If you’re anything like me, you wouldn’t give your money away that easily! You haven’t seen the item, the person who is selling it to you, or any proof that this is the kind of business you can trust.But this is the same experience that customers get when they decide to shop online for products or services. They are expected to pay for something that they haven’t physically seen, to somebody that they don’t know anything about.Your business may be honest and upfront. You may have the best products in the world and the best service to back them up. But everyone says that.Why should your visitors believe you?Three Trust Building Features Of The Best Online BusinessesIf there is a simple answer to the complex question of building trust as a business, it is reputation. If the potential customers that visit your website can read feedback and comments from satisfied customers, they will be more confident in your abilities to do what you claim and deliver quality products and services.There are many ways that you can leverage the power of customer feedback. Here are just three to get you started:1. Use Customer Testimonials On Your WebsiteThe easiest thing to do is just publish a long list of testimonials on your website from existing customers. If you are doing good business you will receive a lot of positive feedback naturally, but always ask for permission to publish the review along with some customer information.Many online businesses publish testimonials without saying where they came from. This is a particularly spurious way of doing business, and will probably raise more concerns than having none at all.So what do you do if you have no existing customers to quote and are just getting started with your business? A great technique is to ask reputable online organisations and individuals to help you out. Perhaps you could send a free sample of your product to niche bloggers, and ask them to provide testimonials in return?2. Sign Up To An Independent Reviews WebsiteOnce you are more established, do not assume that the need to build trust disappears. In fact, as your customer base grows and you have less time to concentrate on each individual visitor, it can become even more difficult to spend time on bolstering customer confidence.There are many external websites and business directories that include business reviews, and these are great tools for building trust and also winning new customers.At FreeIndex, the leading UK business directory, you can create a listing for your business free of charge. This public profile will contain information on what you do and how people can get in touch.But FreeIndex also offers the capability for customers to post reviews and increase your overall rating. As your number of reviews increases, you can add a badge to your website. This has two significant effects – you can show potential customers that you have received lots of positive feedback, with the added authority of an independent website.Some other great places to get your business reviewed are Yelp and Google Places.3. Give Your Customers A Voice That Can Be HeardFinally, if you have enough customers to support it, integrating discussion with your website is a highly effective way to build trust.A message board, or forum, gives visitors the chance to start their own conversations about your business, your products, and the wider industry. As these individuals discuss your services, potential customers can quickly see that you have lots of happy customers.Of course, starting a message board opens the door to negative comments. Hopefully, you will not receive any of these! If you do, though, turn them into positive opportunities by being professional and supportive. After all, this is your chance to show potential customers just how brilliant your customer service is!Your web hosting provider will usually be happy to tell you which options are open to you when it comes to launching a forum on your website. Usually, you can install a message board like phpBB – which is free – automatically with a script installer that is included with your plan.Several plugins are also available for WordPress that offer message board functionality. You can explore them at wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/forum.Security For Your Online BusinessOf course, reputation is only one side of what makes a trustworthy business online. People don’t just need to trust that you can provide great products and services – they also need to trust you with their confidential information including:
Credit Card Data
Address Details
Passwords and Logins
The first thing that people check when parting with this kind of sensitive data is to look at the security features of your website. All confidential data should be sent through Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL. The way that you prove your trustworthy nature when it comes to this information is with an SSL Certificate.SSL Certificates are issued by companies that vouch for the security processes that you have in place. Your web hosting provider should support SSL, and can help you to get an SSL Certificate for a small fee.Although there are alternative ways to take payments online including Paypal, an SSL Certificate does more than tell customers that data is being transferred securely. It tells them that you are a trustworthy company overall, responsible in the way that you conduct business online.Be A Real, Accountable and Reachable BusinessFinally, perhaps the most important thing of all when it comes to building customer trust is just being a real person, not a faceless business name without connections to the real world.It almost goes without saying that your website should tell visitors everything that they need to know about who you are and how you can be reached. By publishing your phone number, a mailing address, and a company registration number if applicable, your visitors can get in touch to check you out before they make their purchase, and be confident that they could reach you if something went wrong.There are many reasons that people shy away from giving out this kind of information their websites. Some people expect to receive nuisance calls the moment they put their phone number online. Others don’t like the idea of publishing their home address, but do not have a business address to use.These are understandable reasons, but let them go. If you want customers to give you their trust, you’ll need to give them something in return.Be an open, honest person and visitors will see your business as open and honest too. Show them that you are a real human being that they can trust and they will always put their trust in your online business.
Plus Sized Women’s Fashion Trends
Up until a few years ago people ignored the plus sized fashion industry. In their minds, fuller figured women did not spend the large sums of money per year that women of other sizes spent, therefore they did not see the purpose for designing clothing for their needs.Yet, eventually clothing designers realised their mistakes. Not only did plus-sized women spend significant sums of money on clothing and accessories, at times they surpassed the average amount other demographics of women spent on fashion.This was attributed to the idea that once a fuller figured woman discovered an item of clothing that fit and flattered her, she typically bought multiples of that garment. Well, it was not long after that was discovered that designers started creating clothes specifically with the curvier woman in mind.Now, the plus-sized fashion industry is worth billions of dollars. There are even retailers who are solely dedicated to providing plus-sized only fashions to the public. Thus, it was only a matter of time before the industry spawned their own fashion trends. Interestingly enough, many of the trends translate into all fashion.The trends simply need to be modified for each body type. Yet, all women must adjust their clothing to their body types regardless of if they are a size 32 or 50. For example, one of the biggest trends in fashion is prints. For years fuller figured women were told that they could not wear prints.That is patently untrue. All women can wear prints, they simply need to tailor the fashion to their size. The fuller-figured in society should wear prints that minimise their flaws and enhance their positive traits.Vibrant colours are another trend that zaftig women were initially told to shy away from, but have now embraced that trend along with scores of other women. Anyone can wear bright colours. They key is to wear the bright colour on the body part that want to highlight and pair it with a dark colour on the body part they want to hide.The same theory goes for another trend that has been spotted on celebrities and real women throughout the globe. The jumpsuit look is ideal for many women with more to love because a significant number of them have small waists with ample hips and bosoms.Thus, jumpsuits enhance their figures and shows off their tiny waists. Dressing well is all about proportions. Jumpsuits help balance proportions and when paired with beautiful accessories, they make for an easy and fast outfit for a night out.In regards to a night out, leather is a great choice. The universal favourite amongst women, leather is versatile and easy to take from day to night. Many women, regardless of their size, look fabulous in a pair of leather trousers. Designers agree and they can now be found on women of all sizes, shapes and fashions.Another universal trend that all women can partake in is the sporty trend. Let’s be honest, women love sports just as much as men. This is why many sports teams market to them as well. The trend has taken off with many women, but with one interesting twist.They are wearing the fashions not only to their local pubs to support their favourite teams. Thus, designers have been taking their cues from the pitches and using it in fashion and what a big hit it has been. Now women of all sizes have been wearing this look and it is still gaining a bit of steam.The fuller figured woman is able to look just as fabulous or better than her smaller brethren. They key to taking advantage of all of the trends is to twist it to suit their body types. When they do that, they will be able to wear any look they want.
Educational Services For Children With Asperger’s Syndrome
Children with Asperger’s syndrome are an intelligent bunch who have a hard time grasping social and cognitive skills the way other children do. Few children would be able to easily grab a book and read the words in it, comprehending the story as they go. Children with aspergers, on the other hand, learn best when they’re able to see what’s being taught to them. Schools which make it a point to provide educational services to children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum could ensure that these children learn everything their peers do in a fashion specific to their needs.Because Asperger’s syndrome is different from one child to another, each child ought to be guided on an individual basis. While visual learning might work for one child, it may not work as well for another. Speech language pathology, occupational therapy, counseling and special education classes with a special education teacher are all services that are available for kids with aspergers. Based on the educational needs of the particular child, some of these services may work in conjunction with another to aid provide the student with the environment which meets his or her specific needs to learn at their greatest potential.Parents of children with aspergers are encouraged to work with their kid’s teachers and advisors to make sure that their child is getting the best education they are entitled to in an atmosphere that is favorable to their learning style. They should make the teacher aware of their child’s requirements, as many of the regular classroom staff are not trained to work with a kid with aspergers.This helps the education staff understand that the parent is involved with their kid and wish to know what is being done to educate them properly. They do, however, have to remember that their child is not the only one in the classroom and if they are in a position to volunteer at the school to assist their kid meet their educational goals, then they will be welcomed in the classroom.Children with Asperger’s and their parents could use a comprehensive autism planning system (CAPS) to assist the teachers plan out a course of study and a day to day schedule that will assist define what the child’s educational needs are and how they would get it. It gives the teachers, the student with Asperger’s and the parent a powerful tool to use and it assists the student understand who they’re and the special way they learn.
SEO For Business Development – How Search Engines Work
In understanding the use of SEO for business development, it is also important to understand how search engines work in order to make best use of them in developing your business. In saying that we are not referring to the mathematics of search engine algorithms or exactly how they calculate the relevance of individual web pages to the search terms used to find them, but to those aspects of websites that are important in achieving high listing for any specific page.First, let us agree to use Google as an example of a search engine: this makes sense because Google is used by more people than all the others together. In fact, in one study, Google had 85.3% of the total search engine traffic in December 2009, with Yahoo next on 6.3% and Bing with 3.3%.When a Google user uses a search term to find information online, Google doesn’t then scan all the world’s web pages seeking that term, but refers to its index, on which it has listed web pages that provide that search term or vocabulary semantically related to it. In fact, it is possible to have a page listed for a specific keyword that does not contain that keyword at all – anywhere on the page! Google employs algorithms programmed to use pre-defined factors that calculate the relevance of the page to the search term being used.You can use a keyword on your page to improve the possibility of your page receiving a high listing should anybody use it in their search, but there are many more aspects of SEO for business development that just keywords. By learning how search engines work you can maximize your web page to best meet the criteria that Google uses in calculating the relevance of a page to the information it considers a user is searching for.First, each page is listed separately, so you will not find entire websites listed on Google. You will find either the home page or internal pages of a website, together with the links that can guide visitors through the entire site. In that respect, home page listing is equivalent to a site listing, but unlike website directories, a search engine will also list the internal pages of a site.So let’s say you are using the term ‘Apple’ on Google to find information on growing Bramley cooking apples. Google will look up its index for ‘apple’ and list the web pages it calculates to offer the best information about apple. Some search engines regard singular and plural as being the same, but not Google. The top 10 results of a recent search offered 9 results on Apple Inc. and 1 on the fruit. This is where knowing how search engines work is beneficial in enabling you, not only to find the information you want, but also in optimizing your website and in the use of SEO for business development.First, Google distinguishes between ‘apple’ and ‘apples’, and by using the plural, we now get 4 results for the fruit. A problem here is that Google looks, not only at the website and the on-page search engine optimization, but also at how many other pages link to the indexed pages. The more links back, then more authoritative that page is deemed to be on the topic of apples. That is why the Apple Inc. pages still figure highly, because they tend to have a lot more links from other web pages than a page on fruit apples.You have to use an aspect of what Google refers to as ‘latent semantic indexing’ (LSI). That is language relating to the keyword in the meaning it is used on the page. Somebody designing a page on cooking apples would have to use related terms such as, cooking, fruit, pips, core, pies, etc, to show Google the type of ‘apple’ that the page relates to. You have to refine your search using similar terms.So ‘cooking apples’ now provides a list with all 10 results appertaining to cooking apples. Refine it further using ‘growing bramley cooking apples’ and you get exactly what you are looking for. Not only that but the results are listed with the most authoritative web page listed first, based upon many factors such as content (use the Title and Description tags and H headings to tell Google what your page is all about), its relevance (use keywords and semantically related text to achieve this) and authority (internal and external links to the important pages).That is basically how search engines work, and although there are many more aspects of SEO for business development used by Google in assessing the relevance and importance of your page to specific keywords it contains, focusing on the above will enable you to make good use of the search engine both as source of information and as a means of developing your business.
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!
The Negative Impact of E-Levy on Mobile Banking.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mobile Banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Electronic Transaction Levy or “E-Levy” is a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms.
ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE BANKING
Mobile banking offers numerous benefits such as ease of transaction, convenience, time-saving, managing your finances, and budgeting. Some advantages of Mobile Banking in remote areas include:
Financial Inclusion — mobile banking offers convenient and easy banking services to people in remote areas. Thus, it allows banking on the go and offers all benefits of a banking system to rural areas without the presence of a financial institution.
Accessing the bank 24/7 — Mobile banking provides ubiquitous banking services without the need to visit the bank to have access to services. This offers time to benefit and ease of transacting at a distance.
Cost-benefit — Mobile banking saves the banks the cost of building physical infrastructures (branches) and maintaining branches and staff. Also, reduced costs on the customer side since the burden of visiting the bank for services is eliminated.
Improving resilience in the face of poverty — Mobile money acts as both a savings vehicle and a means of transferring funds during times of economic or environmental shocks.
Strengthening the formal economy — For many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opening a mobile money account can facilitate access to formal financial services. Mobile money is well placed to address the issue of informality that blights many developing economies and hampers domestic resource mobilization efforts. Mobile Money enables ease of transacting, thus increasing business profits for MSMEs.
Facilitating economic growth — Mobile money has been shown to contribute to economic growth by increasing both productivity and per capita incomes
DISADVANTAGES OF E-LEVY ON MOBILE BANKING
The design of mobile money taxation policy appears to be the antithesis of a well-designed tax system. The disadvantages include:
Inequity — Mobile money taxes as currently structured to create inequity in the tax system. As the tax is mostly borne by the poor and users of the services are subject to additional taxation (unlike bank or cash transactions), the principles of both horizontal and vertical equity in the tax system are contravened.
Uncertainty -. Uncertainty and lack of transparency over taxation systems can have a direct impact on the operations of the tax authority, increasing enforcement costs, as well as discouraging investment.
Inconvenience — The administration of mobile money transaction taxes creates an inconvenience for MMPs who must calculate and collect the tax on the revenue authority’s behalf. There is an additional inconvenience for users of the service for whom remote digital transactions become more expensive or out of reach if they revert back to cash.
Inefficiency — Badly designed mobile money taxes have been shown to have a distortionary impact on demand for mobile money services. This in turn has had negative impacts on overall tax takes, as well as impacting the attainment of national economic and development goals.
EFFECT OF MOBILE BANKING — CASE STUDIES
The decision to impose taxes on mobile bank transactions will trigger so many problems.
Ghana — According to The Fourth Estate Ghana; Although the government projects a 24% decline in transactions when the levy is finally implemented, preliminary findings published by the bank of Ghana indicate the value of mobile money transactions had dropped by 3.2 billion in December 2021, less than 2 months after the proposal to introduce E-levy.
Uganda — An e-levy of 1% introduced in 2018 has led to an overall drop in the person-to-person transaction by more than 50%, and a 24% drop in industry transactions within the same year the tax was introduced according to a report by Global system for mobile communication (GSMA).
Congo — An e-levy of 1% was introduced in 2019. The government had to reverse the tax on cash outs only due to negative results of the levy on Mobile money users such as a decline in mobile money agents (unemployment) and high-value withdrawals by people.
Other countries include Benin (5%) and Cameroun (0.2%). In all these countries, the e-levy has imposed a negative effect on the economy and people. If we want to ensure the financial inclusion of people in rural areas, we need to ensure that we encourage mobile banking by withdrawing the e-levy tax.
Reference:
https://thefourthestategh.com/2022/03/16/e-levy-this-is-what-happened-when-other-african-countries-passed-it/
Purohit, S., & Arora, R. (2021). The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol, 27(1).
Charles G. Kpan, Jr. is an Information Technologist with over 5 years of experience in the provision of Information Technology Services and an emphasis on Web Development and Visual Branding. He’s the managing Director of CYGEC IT SOLUTIONS INC. and holds a bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Blue Crest University, Liberia.