Short answer: yes, when the message is wanted, well-timed and short. Ghana is one of West Africa’s most connected markets. DataReportal’s Digital 2025 Ghana report counted 24.3 million internet users (69.9 percent of the population) and 38.3 million cellular connections at the start of the year. Those two numbers tell the story: nearly everyone has a mobile line, many people have more than one SIM, and a sizeable minority are still offline or only intermittently online. SMS is the channel that reaches both groups.
Why SMS works so well here
It needs no data bundle
Email and apps need mobile data. An SMS arrives on any handset, including basic phones, whether or not the recipient bought a bundle that week. For audiences outside Greater Accra and Ashanti, or for older customers, that matters.
People already trust it for money
Mobile money has trained Ghanaians to read transactional texts carefully: payment confirmations from MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash and AT Money, bank alerts and utility tokens all arrive by SMS. A clearly branded message from a known sender benefits from that habit.
It is immediate
Texts are usually read soon after they arrive, which suits time-bound messages: a flash sale that ends at 6 p.m., a reminder that a cocoa purchasing clerk visits tomorrow, or an exam-day update from a school.
Where SMS is not the right tool
SMS is not a newsletter. With 160 characters you can alert, remind and prompt, but you cannot explain a new savings product or show a catalogue. Long promotional texts sent too often also generate complaints to networks and to the National Communications Authority, whose Unsolicited Electronic Communications Code of Conduct was written precisely because consumers were tired of spam texts. Pair SMS with email: our guide to combining SMS and email campaigns shows how, and texting versus email compares the two.
Making campaigns effective in practice
- Only text people who asked. Consent is required under Act 843 and Act 772, and consenting contacts respond better. See how to collect SMS opt-ins.
- Brand the sender. A recognisable sender ID gets opened; an unknown number gets ignored or reported.
- Lead with the benefit. “GH₵50 off school uniforms until Friday” works better than a greeting.
- Personalise. Using a first name or the customer’s branch is easy with personalised SMS.
- Respect the clock. Ghana is on GMT all year. Send in business hours and avoid Sunday mornings, when many customers are at church.
- Include an opt-out. Tell recipients in every promotional text how to stop the messages, free of charge, as the NCA Code expects.
Measuring whether it worked
Effectiveness is not a feeling. Track delivery and failure rates by network, clicks on shortened links, redemptions of an SMS-only code, and sales in the 48 hours after sending. Mailpro’s SMS statistics show delivery results per campaign, and in Mailpro’s own customer survey users rate SMS deliverability 9.8 out of 10.
A simple test you can run
Split a consented segment in two. Send group A an email only, and group B the same email plus a short SMS reminder on the morning of the deadline or sale. Compare conversions after 48 hours. Most Ghanaian businesses learn more from one controlled test on their own customers than from any published benchmark.
Seasonal moments worth planning
- Independence Day (6 March) and Republic Day (1 July) for patriotic promotions.
- Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, both public holidays in Ghana.
- Homowo in the Ga communities of Accra, usually around August.
- Farmers’ Day, the first Friday of December, for agribusiness and input suppliers.
- December and Christmas, when the diaspora visits and spending peaks.
Ready to try? Set up your first campaign on the Ghana SMS marketing page.