Ghana’s Mobile Money Interoperability Nightmare

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana

It is possible to transfer money from one mobile money service to the other in some jurisdictions, especially Tanzania. But that can’t be possible in Ghana.

For instance, a customer of MTN Mobile Money cannot transfer money from his or her wallet to either Airtel Money, TigoCash, or Vodafone Cash. The same cannot happen if a customer of either Airtel Money, TigoCash, or Vodafone Cash sending money to MTN Mobile Money.

The above scenario means that the four mobile money operators (MMOs) in Ghana namely MTN Mobile Money, TigoCash, Airtel Money and Vodafone Cash are not interoperable. Simply put, interoperability is not taking among the MMOs.

In the context of industry collaboration, the opportunity of interoperability has been widely discussed in Ghana. While not an objective in and of itself, interoperability has long been proposed as a tool to achieve broader strategic and financial inclusion goals, according to GSMA.

Interoperability, in its most complete form, refers to interconnection across an array of use cases, including transfers between mobile money accounts or mobile money and bank accounts, both domestically and internationally. One of the first prioritised forms of interoperability allowed transactions to flow between mobile money services and the banking sector, it added.

For instance in Tanzania, as the industry develops, domestic interoperability between mobile money services has experienced an increasing amount of attention.

More soon

Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report

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