Digital Inclusive Finance and Farmer Entrepreneurship: Pathways to Sustainable Development in Rural Ghana

ABSTRACT Farmers' entrepreneurship is significant in rural income generation and economic development. Farmers' perceptions of entrepreneurs redefine farming from a lifestyle to a business venture that can enhance their rural well‐being. Based on data collected from Shai‐Osudoku and Ho in Ghana's Greater Accra and Volta Regions using a questionnaire, this study explores the facilitating role of digital inclusive finance (DIF) on farmer entrepreneurship (FE) in Ghana. We account for endogeneity using endogenous treatment estimation and found out that FE is considerably improved by the increased availability of digital financial services by 49%, which is clearly higher than the 31.6% of the probit model. The PSM results further confirm that DIF adoption increases entrepreneurial activity by 10.3%, which is significantly robust to matched comparisons ( p < 0.01). This finding strengthens causal inference; it complements both the descriptive and endogenous treatment models. Our results further show that access to digital finance, digital literacy, and household income significantly increase farmers' entrepreneurial activities, promoting entrepreneurship, poverty reduction, and economic advancement in rural regions, thereby promoting sustainable development goals (SDGs) 1, 8, and 9, respectively. We suggest that for sustainable economic growth and farmer entrepreneurship, governments should invest in digital infrastructure, abolish transactional costs (E‐Levy tax), and implement digital literacy programs to promote entrepreneurship and financial inclusion.