From Accra, Ghana’s capital city to Zuarungu, a small town in the Upper East Region, young educated people are engaged in mobile money (MoMo) transaction business.
These young people are normally employed by individuals and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) owners who are contracted by Mobile Financial Services (MFS) providers namely MTN Mobile Money, Vodafone Cash, and AirtelTigo Money to transaction financial services to their customers on their behalf.
Cash-in and cash-out that is loading value into the mobile money system, and then converting it back out again, is one of the most important functions of MoMo agents.
Also, they do in many instances register new customers and provide front-line customer service—such as teaching new users how to initiate transactions on their phone.
Due to this symbiotic relationship that exists between the MFS providers and MoMo agents, they earn commissions for performing these services.
Agents, typically conduct other kinds of business in addition to mobile money. These may include retail of mobile airtime, and SIM cards.
The growth of MoMo agents network across the country is creating additional source of revenue and job opportunities for the masses in the country, according to Eli Hini, Chief Executive Officer of MobileMoney Limited, a subsidiary of MTN Ghana.
Making a living out of MoMo business
A cross-section of MoMo agents, who spoke to African Eye Report, admitted that making a living would have been difficult without the MoMo business.
Madam Vida Sena Gbedze, who runs Lividas Enterprise, a MoMo agent shop at Alhaji, a suburb of Accra, said the mobile money transfer business has been beneficial to her and her family.
In her own words: “Through this business, I’m able to take care of needs as well as my family. So, it has changed my life”.
For Madam Fidaus Mohammed, an employee at Vdan AD Ventures, the youth are making some money for working in the mobile money eco-space.
While Gifty Abena Kissi, another MoMo agent, added that she was able to pay her sister’s school fees at the tertiary level because of MoMo. “So, I see MTM Mobile Money as a Godsend because the company has transformed my life to something meaningful”.
Physically challenged people also benefit
On February 2020, MobileMoney Limited chalked another feat by roping in 100 physically challenged people into its expansive MoMo agent network in Ghana.
The beneficiaries were given disability friendly kiosks, mobile phones and GHC4, 000 seed capital each to operate MoMo business across the country.
The MTN Ghana and Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) Economic Empowerment Project was part of telecoms company’s effort to economically empower persons living with disabilities in Ghana.
Furthermore, MobileMoney Limited also employed and resourced thousands of mobile agents to provide customer and public education on MoMo fraud for all people irrespective of their MoMo platforms.
The company adopted this new strategy aims at localizing the MoMo education by involving traditional rulers, opinion leaders, churches and mosques, among others to ensure that the messages reach all in the communities.
MoMo agents in numbers
According to the Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data revealed by the BoG in July 2021, there were a total of 403 thousand active MoMo agents helping millions of people to send and receive cash.
Out of this number, MTN Ghana whose subsidiary is the MobileMobile Limited alone has over 13 thousand MoMo agents across the West African country.
The company also controls the chunk of the country’s mobile money market and has the largest network of MoMo agents across the country.
MobileMoney Limited which is the first to launch mobile money operations in Ghana on July 21st 2009 has celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019.
Launched with two main services namely Money Transfer and Airtime Purchase, the platform has six major categories of financial transactions under which varying services are provided. These are pensions, insurance, Savings, micro loans, international remittances and banking options.
It started with nine partner banks and now is working closely with 18 partner banks. Its agents are growing. By the end of quarter one of 2019, MobileMoney Limited had recorded 411 million transactions on the MoMo platform, which this shows that people have now become more conversant with using the MoMo to undertake various transactions.
The digital payment channels in the country are-cheques, cards, USSD, electronic funds transfer, mobile money platforms and mobile apps, internet banking, and digital wallets.
These digital payment channels are being used for Payment to Government (P2G,B2G), Government Payments (G2P, G2B), Business to Business (B2B), Merchant and Retail Payment (P2M), Public Utility Payments, and person-to-person ( P2P).
MoMo accounts
Speaking at this year’s MTN MoMo Stakeholder Forum held in August, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison in a read for him by the Director of Payment Systems Department at the BoG, Dr Setor Amediku, revealed that over the past decade, mobile money accounts have increased thirty-fold, to 44 million in June 2021.
The volume of mobile money interoperability transactions have also increased twenty-four fold since its launch in 2018 to 10.3 million in June 2021, while GHIPSS Instant Pay volume of transactions has also increased significantly since 2016, according to the Governor
Deepening Financial Inclusion
The recent developments suggest that mobile money technology has evolved and gained public acceptance, and in almost a decade, contributed significantly towards financial inclusion in the country.
For instance, the facilitation of money transfers and payment of utilities between individuals and across sectors has become enormous.
According to the World Bank Global Financial Inclusion Index released in April 2018, Ghana’s financial inclusion has increased from 41 percent in 2014 to 58 percent in 2017 mainly on account of adoption of digital channels such as mobile money for service delivery.
The President of Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA), Suleiman Mustapha observed that the revolution of mobile money transactions in the Ghanaian economy has instigated a paradigm shift to a new kind of retail banking system where large segments of the unbanked populace are being absorbed into the financial services sector.
The success of mobile money transactions in advancing financial inclusion cannot be overemphasized, but there is still scope for further expansion and players and the regulator (BoG) need to focus on areas such as pricing of digital financial services to promote competitive practices to foster increased usage, according to him.
Bottom line
So, in a nutshell, the revolution of mobile money transactions in the Ghanaian economy sparked by MTN Ghana is generating thousands of direct and indirect jobs for teeming youth in the country.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
