Accra, Ghana, August 16//-Ms Alima Yahaya, 25, a head porter at Agbogbloshie in the Accra metropolis beamed with joy after sending GH₵100 (about $18) to her aged mother in one of the villages in the North East Region of Ghana.
She was happy because her mother would receive the exact amount without paying any fee, unlike previously.
The implementation of the fee waiver on Mobile Money (MoMo) transactions has enabled the majority of Ghanaians to send cash free.
The fee waiver on MoMo on-net transfers up to GH₵100 daily was first implemented on March 20, 2020 as part of efforts to support government’s intervention to control the spread of the COVID-19 through the adoption of MoMo for financial transactions and to minimize the risk posed by cash handling.
Ms Yakubu, like many other Ghanaians are using the opportunity to transfer more cash to their relatives and friends in this critical time.
Latest Economic and Financial Data released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for the month of July confirmed that since the implementation of the waiver, the total value of Mobile Money (MoMo) transactions has been increasing.
“For those of us who had to send money across to help friends and family; pay for an item, fulfillment of our religious obligations and also gain access to money without visiting the bank, Mobile Money came in very handy to facilitate the process”, the Manager for MTN MobileMoney Limited, Eli Hini, said as the company launched its annual MTN MoMo Month recently.
Additionally, mobile payments have eased the burden of sending money to people in faraway locations across the country.
Before the advent of mobile payment, it was very cumbersome to send cash to relatives and friends living in the remotest parts of the country. Ms Yahaya and several of her colleague head porters could not transfer cash.
The posture of the commercial banks which were the only safest channels of sending money at that time was unwelcoming to most people. So, they used to rely on unorthodox ways of sending money to their relatives and friends.
For instance, they used to give money to known passengers, drivers, and driver mates to send to their relatives and loved ones, while the few educated ones sent money to their families and friends through the Ghana Post.
However, money sent by the postal services used to be delayed. It could take months for the recipient(s) to get the money. So, it was impossible to send money for emergency needs.
Whereas money sent by relatives and friends in urban Ghana through the passengers, drivers and driver mates in most cases were ‘diverted’.
Reminiscing her experience, Ms Asibi Ayine, a teacher, said: “On countless occasions, lorry drivers spent money I sent through them to my old dad in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region”.
The story was the same for Osman Dakora, a businessman and many other people living in urban Ghana.
He also collaborated that before he could remit money those days to his people up north, he had to go to any Apex Bank branch to send it through the nearest rural bank for them to go for.
The nearest rural bank to the community according to him used to open on only market days. “Image you were sending money to take care of an ill person, your guess is as good as mine”, Mr Dakora lamented.
With the revolution of mobile money transactions in Ghana sparked by MTN Ghana, these challenges are things of the past.
According to experts, Mobile money is the means of payment of money without the use of hard cash through mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets).
Airtime purchases, bill payments, and remittances are still the leading contributors to mobile financial services in Ghana and other African countries.
Mobile money platforms are serving a twin purpose of providing an engine for financial inclusion as well as an opportunity for service providers.
MTN MobileMoney Limited, AirtelTigo Money and Vodafone Cash are also serving as gateway for Digital Financial Services (DFS) providers to tap large unexplored market opportunities as the majority of the population is yet to adopt this technology.
By developing digital financial abilities, other companies are opening themselves up to other submarkets including micro-insurance, micropayments, and data-based financial services.
The growing popularity of mobile phones is a driving factor in increasing the number of mobile money users and changing the dynamic of digital financial solutions.
The COVID-19 pandemic which is a global health and humanitarian crisis is also an economic crisis that throws back many years of gains.
Thousands of lives have been lost, and initial estimates suggest that one-third of the working population could either lose their jobs or have their salaries reduced as the lockdowns, curfews, border closures, and shutdowns continue, according to a report released by McKinsey & Company, an American management consulting firm.
Results from a new COVID-19 Business Tracker Survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank, indicated about 770,000 workers (25.7% of the total workforce), had their wages reduced .
While about 42,000 employees were laid off during the country’s COVID-19 partial lockdown. The pandemic also led to reduction in working hours for close to 700,000 workers, it noted.
Government has already put in place diverse supports for businesses including the establishment of a Coronavirus Alleviation Programme to protect jobs, livelihoods and support small businesses. And, also is the Government’s GH¢600 Million Stimulus Package to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).
“The findings of the Business Tracker provide specificity on the pathways of effects, variation in the effects for different categories of businesses, their geographical areas, and the extent of effects”, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician noted.
The survey was carried out between May 26 and June 17, 2020 across the country to assess how the novel coronavirus has impacted private businesses.
The high degree of disruption is likely to continue until a vaccine is developed or a cure is found.
Also, the crisis is changing the way people in Ghana and across the globe live, work, consume, and pay their bills. While consumer expenditure is at record low worldwide, how and where consumers choose to use their money has shifted.
To this end, there has been a rush for digital payments and shun away cash-based transactions, which the World Health Organization flagged as a potential conduit for the spread of the deadly infectious virus.
This therefore means not just safer, digital payments to facilitate physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic but also, in the longer term, a shift toward financial inclusion, which could help get global economies back on track more quickly after the crisis, according to the McKinsey report.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
