Accra, Ghana, December 22, 2018//-Mobile Financial Services (MFS) providers have called on the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to review upward the transaction limits of mobile money services in the country to speed up the country’s quest of becoming a cashless economy within the shortest possible time.
The last time the BoG reviewed the limit is over three years ago. It is therefore important for the central bank to increase the limits, according to players in the country’s MFS industry.
The three MFS providers namely-MTN Mobile Money, Vodafone Cash, and AirtelTigo Money made the call at a day’s event organized by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications in Accra.
The MFS Manager for Vodafone Cash, Carl Ashie said customers had raised concerns about some of these transaction limits which the MFS providers had initiated discussions with the BoG to get the transact limits increase.
But how much and where it will be increased to and when it will be reviewed depend largely on the BoG because it is a regulatory issue, he explained.
The Industry experts blamed the stifling growth of the mobile money market among others on the transaction limits.
The Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) guidelines issued by the BoG categorised customers e-money accounts into three groups which defined their maximum daily and monthly transaction limits.
Depending on which of the three categories a customer is placed in by the service provider, the daily transaction limit ranges from GH¢300 to GH¢5,000, with the monthly maximum transaction also ranging from GH¢3,000 to GH¢50,000.
Also, the guidelines indicated that the daily and monthly transaction limits of mobile money merchants as they stipulated an aggregate limit on cash-out and outbound payments of GH¢10,000 per day and GH¢100,000 monthly.
Deepening financial inclusion
Mr Ashie noted that telcos through their MFS had lifted thousands of Ghanaians out of poverty. In his own words: “Telcos are saving lives and making them productive through MFS. It lifts thousands of people out of poverty. It also deepens financial inclusion”.
Growing mobile money transactions
Mobile money transactions are consistently growing as the total number of transactions keep increasing monthly.
Latest figures from the BoG indicated that 21 million Ghanaians have mobile money accounts as against 11.4 million bank accounts.
Also, over GH¢1.8 billion cash on mobile money float. The amount being in the wallets is available to the banks.
MTN Ghana alone, the value of transactions for MTN Mobile Money service alone has astronomically risen from about GH¢56 billion in 2016 to GH¢ 68.2 billion as of June, this year. While the total number of transactions stood at over 485 million.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
