Voice SMS in Twi: Recorded Calls for Customers in Ghana

JOJosephine OwusuaNovember 3, 202613 min read

Customer in Ghana listening to a recorded Voice SMS in Twi on a mobile phone

To send a Voice SMS in Twi, you record the message in Twi, upload the audio file, and have it played to each customer as a phone call. A text written in Twi would miss many of the same people, because some of your customers cannot read in any language and many who can read do so only in English.

Arkesel Voice SMS is available in Ghana only, so the figures and advice here are about Ghanaian audiences.

Does writing an SMS in Twi reach people who can’t read English?

It reaches some of them. A Twi text still asks the person to read, so it does nothing for someone who cannot read in any language, and it only helps a reader who can read Twi.

The census shows why that second point matters. According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2021 census literacy report, of the literate population aged 6 and older, 52.8% can read and write in at least one Ghanaian language, while 96.3% can in English. Among the 8,779,374 people literate in only one language, 93.1% read and write English only and 5.6% a Ghanaian language only.

Those figures measure reading and writing, and they say nothing about how many people understand Twi when they hear it. The 52.8% also covers every Ghanaian language together, so it is not a share for Twi. A Twi text is still useful for customers you know read Twi, but it will not solve a literacy gap.

How many people in Ghana can’t read?

Three in ten people aged 6 and older in Ghana (30.2%, or 7,924,409 people) are not literate in any language, according to the 2021 census. Among people aged 15 and older, the figure is 27.8% (5,527,554 people). These are two different age groups, so the two numbers should not be added or subtracted.

Your own audience could sit a long way from those averages. In the same report, 80.6% of urban residents aged 6 and older are literate in at least one language, against 55.2% of rural residents the same age. Literacy is 69.8% nationally. Greater Accra records the highest figure at 87.9% and Savannah the lowest at 32.8%, and nine out of the 16 regions sit below the national figure.

The census relies on people reporting for themselves and their households. The Ghana Statistical Service’s report on illiteracy warns that direct literacy tests suggest possible underreporting, so the true number of people who cannot read may be higher.

Can a phone call reach them?

A call can reach many of them, but not all. A recorded call asks the person to answer and listen, so reading does not come into it. The Ghana Statistical Service’s illiteracy report says about 3.4 million (60.8%) of the 5.5 million illiterate adults own a mobile phone.

That leaves about four in ten illiterate adults without a phone of their own, and a voice campaign cannot reach them directly. The figure also measures ownership only, so it does not tell you who answers a call from an unfamiliar number. If some of your customers have no phone, we recommend keeping an in-person route for them, such as a field officer or a community meeting.

Is voice better than SMS?

We found no evidence that it is. Voice can reach some people that text cannot, and that is a different claim from getting a better response.

The closest direct comparison we read comes from a maternal and child health service in Balaka District, in rural Malawi, using data from 2011 to 2013. In that study, SMS had higher delivery success and higher intended or actual behaviour change than voice. The authors also found that offering several delivery methods was crucial to reach beyond literate phone owners. Their paper lists accessibility to illiterate populations and the ability to be recorded in any language among the advantages of voice messages, as background rather than as a measured result.

Read that with its limits in mind. It covers one health service outside Ghana, and the sections we read do not describe random assignment, so people on the SMS route may differ from those on the voice route. We did not find a study measuring how Voice SMS compares with SMS on response in Ghana.

Our recommendation is to keep SMS for customers who read it and add voice for those it misses.

To find those customers, we suggest two questions, as advice rather than a tested method. Ask branch staff, agents and field officers which customers ask someone else to read their messages to them. Then ask customers whether they would rather get a text or a call, so nobody has to say they cannot read. Note each answer in your contact list.

This table is a starting point, and our guides on SMS and voice for business, choosing a channel mix and combining channels in a campaign go further.

Your customer	Start with	Why
Reads English	SMS in English	96.3% of literate people aged 6 and older read and write English
Reads a Ghanaian language, and you know which	SMS in that language, with voice as an option	A text works once they or your staff have confirmed they read it
Understands a language when spoken but does not read	A recorded call in that language	A text cannot reach them, and a call needs no reading
Has no phone of their own	An in-person route	Neither a text nor a call reaches them directly

Which language should I use for customers in different regions?

Choose from what you know about each customer, and use the region only as a rough prompt. The two census reports used here do not count speakers of each language, so this decision rests on your own knowledge. These steps are our advice:

Start with your records. Branch staff, agents and field officers may know which language a customer uses with them, so ask them and write it down.
Ask customers directly. Add a language question at signup or at your next contact. Store the answer as a field in your contact list, so you can segment your list by it the way an email marketer would.
Use the region only as a prompt. The census table below can suggest where to start, but a customer’s location does not tell you what they speak at home.
Plan one recording and one list per language. Customers who chose Ewe get the Ewe recording, and those who chose Twi get the Twi one.
Check the variety. For customers you describe as Twi speakers, ask whether they expect Asante Twi, Akwapim Twi or Fante, because a recording in the wrong one may sound unfamiliar to them.

For a rough starting point by region, Figure 4.6 of the 2021 census literacy report (report pages 30-31) charts the languages people read and write. The caption does not define the base exactly. We read each figure as a share of people aged 6 and older in that region who are literate in a Ghanaian language, because the shares run too high to be a share of everyone literate. Respondents could give more than one answer, so a region’s shares can add up to more than 100%.

Region	Share who read and write each language
Ashanti, Western North, Ahafo, Bono, Bono East	Asante Twi, 92.1% to 96.0% depending on the region
Eastern	Akwapim Twi 71.6%, Asante Twi 20.9%
Western	Fante 55.8%, Asante Twi 30.8%
Central	Fante 62.0%, Asante Twi 33.3%
Volta	Ewe 93.6%
Greater Accra	Asante Twi 43.7%, Ga 29.3%, Ewe 16.0%, Akwapim Twi 15.3%
Oti	Ewe 54.5%, Akwapim Twi 36.7%

These shares measure literacy rather than what people speak. They leave out people who cannot read, the customers voice is meant for, and people who read only English. Keep them apart from the national literacy figures earlier in this guide, because the base is different. The report gives these figures by region, and we found no national Twi figure in it. The table shows only these regions and languages, not every row in the chart, so use it to decide what to check first and then confirm with your records and your customers.

The table has no row for the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East or Upper West regions. If you have customers there, use your records and ask them which language they prefer, then record in that language, such as Dagbani or Gonja.

How do I record a voice message in Twi that people understand?

Our advice is to keep a recorded voice message in Twi, Ga, Ewe or Hausa short enough that a listener can repeat it back, have a fluent speaker say it, and test it before you send it to everyone. We suggest this order:

Write one short script around one action. Open with your organisation’s name, because the listener needs to know who is calling, then cover what is happening, when, and what the person should do.
Ask a fluent speaker to adapt it. A line-by-line translation can sound stiff when spoken, so give the speaker room to say it naturally, and choose someone your customers would find easy to follow.
Repeat the key detail at the end. A listener cannot scroll back to check a date or place the way a reader can.
Record it and check the file. Have your fluent speaker record it on a smartphone or computer somewhere quiet, then listen back for unclear words. Check that the file saved as MP3 or WAV, and convert it if it did not, because that is the file you upload.
Test it on a few customers. Play it to a small number of people from the target group and ask them to tell you what it said and what they would do next. If they miss the action or get a detail wrong, the script is too long or unclear, so cut or change it and record it again.

Here is an example script for your speaker to adapt:

“This is [clinic name]. Your child’s next vaccination day is [day and date], at the [town] clinic. Please come before noon. Again, that is [day and date], before noon.”

Two further points are good practice, and we are not describing a legal rule here. Only call people who have agreed to hear from you. For timing, ask customers or field staff when people can take a call, and schedule the broadcast for the time most of that list gave.

Should I use a recording or text-to-speech for a Twi message?

On Arkesel, a local-language Voice SMS in Twi, Ga, Ewe or Hausa is an MP3 or WAV recording you make and upload, and the platform plays it to each recipient. Because it is a recording, the message can be in any language, not only the four named here. Typed text is an option for English messages. Some Ghanaian providers advertise local-language text-to-speech, where you type a script and software reads it aloud. We have not tested how those voices sound, so we make no comparison of quality.

The practical difference is who controls the sound. With a recording, you choose the speaker and the variety of the language, and you hear exactly what your customers will hear. When a detail changes, you need a new recording, so keep your speaker’s number handy. With text-to-speech, you change a message by editing the script, and pronunciation depends on the software. If you are assessing any synthetic voice, we suggest previewing it with native speakers from your customer group before you send it.

Where do local-language voice messages fit in Ghana?

They suit short announcements and reminders where the listener needs one clear detail. Examples include a clinic reminding patients of an appointment day, a cooperative announcing a meeting, an NGO sharing a community notice, or an agricultural programme giving a pickup date. If you run a savings group, our guide to USSD registration, SMS receipts and Twi voice reminders covers that setup.

One Ghanaian example comes from Farmerline, an agritech firm, which reported in April 2020 that 7,844 farmers had received COVID-19 voice tips in Twi, and that volunteers were recording the messages in 13 additional local languages, including Ga, Ewe, Dagbani and Hausa. That is Farmerline’s own report of its programme, and it measures reach rather than what farmers did afterwards.

Voice SMS is a recorded message pushed to a phone, so it does not cover menus, inbound calls or collecting answers. For those, see VoiceConnect, our cloud IVR and contact centre product, and our guide to voice surveys for NGOs in Ghana.

How do I know the message landed?

Check that the message arrived as well as whether people listened and understood, because a programme can do well on one and poorly on another. A study of Ghana’s Mobile Midwife programme, a past health service on its own platform that sent pre-recorded audio messages in local languages or SMS, shows why. It found 25% or less of expected messages reached pregnant women, even though more than 77% owned a private mobile phone, while over 80% of the messages they did receive were listened to. The authors say SMS or USSD could improve delivery but may not be appropriate for illiterate users.

That finding describes one past programme and says nothing about any current provider, but the lesson carries over. We suggest three checks after each send:

Delivery. Look at what your account dashboard shows for the broadcast, and compare it with the number of people on your list.
Understanding. Phone a small sample of recipients and ask whether they listened and what the message said. This tells you whether the recording works, and it can also reveal numbers that belong to someone else.
Action. Pick one thing the message asked for, such as attendance on the day, and count it. If you send voice only to people SMS misses, the two groups differ, so a gap between them does not show that one channel is better.

Can I send a Voice SMS in Twi with Arkesel?

Yes, by uploading a recording. Record your message in Twi, save it as an MP3 or WAV file, upload it with your list of recipients, and send it straight away or schedule it for a later time. A repeat reminder needs a new broadcast each time. Our guide on how to send voice messages at scale walks through the sending steps, and your account dashboard shows the current recording options.

Frequently asked questions

What is Voice SMS?

Voice SMS is a recorded message delivered to many phone numbers as automated calls. The recipient answers and hears the recording, with nothing to read.

Is Voice SMS the same as an IVR menu?

No. Voice SMS plays a recorded message to the people you send it to. An IVR menu lets callers press keys to choose options, and on Arkesel that belongs to VoiceConnect.

Does Arkesel Voice SMS work outside Ghana?

No. Arkesel Voice SMS is available in Ghana only.

Start with one reminder

Your next step is to pick one reminder your SMS-only customers may be missing and record it for a small group. Create a free account to try it, as new accounts receive free credits on signup that apply to both SMS and Voice SMS. When you are ready to plan a larger send, you can check current pricing.