…As World Bank report hails Ghana’s mobile money growth
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), Mr. Archie Hesse, has hailed the speed with which the prevailing Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI), saying it has not only recorded unprecedented transactions across boards, but has deepened financial inclusion in Ghana.
This is as latest World Bank report revealed Ghana is the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa, saying mobile phone penetration created opportunities for expansion of financial services and increased the role of non-financial institutions as much as e-money issuers, positioning Ghana as the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa.
In his remarks on the World Bank report at the launch of the fourth Ghana Economic Update, Dr. Henry Kerali, the World Bank Country Director in Ghana, said Ghana’s economy has had a turnaround over the past two years of massive digital infrastructure revolution.
Briefing Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief weekend, Hesse noted that within the first one year of MMI, more than 4.4 million transactions in its first year of operation.
He recalled that “Beginning with just 96,907 transactions in its first month, public usage of the cross network platform grew phenomenally to 422,275 transactions in December last year and 502,873 transactions in May this year”.
According to GhIPSS boss, the increased acceptance of mobile money by shop owners, business operators and service providers was largely because payments could now be made seamlessly across networks.
He added that the linkage of the MMI platform to the E-zwich and bank accounts had further opened up the payment system and encouraged many more initiatives.
Recall that MMI or seamless cross mobile money network transactions became possible in May last year, following a challenge thrown to the GhIPSS, the Telcos and financial institutions by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
While describing MMI initiative as successful, he disclosed that it has provided a very efficient way of funds transfer for many people, opening up the mobile money payment platform, enabling people and businesses to use it in different ways.
Before MMI came into being, cross network transactions through the ‘token’ system was hovering around 90,000 transactions per month. This shows that the MMI is serving a need.
Individuals therefore could not directly transfer funds to another wallet of a different network. But that cumbersome process and the inconvenience ended a year ago.
Besides individual transactions on the MMI platform, many Fintech companies have found it very useful to support new products as payment can now be made easily across networks.
Hesse further expressed the hope that with the passage of the Payment Systems and Services bill into an Act, a lot of products and services will be developed, which would further boost the usage of the MMI platform.
