The mobile Money Interoperability has been launched by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in Accra.
Speaking at the launch of the platform, Dr. Bawumia said this first step “would make Ghana one of the global leaders in the interoperability payments space.”
It is hoped that the mobile money interoperability, which will be managed by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), will enhance financial inclusion as the country’s payment system is formalized to make electronic payments easier.
“Today, we have in excess of 37 million connected mobile phones in Ghana, and that means a huge number of people can be brought into the financial space just by using mobile phones. These mobile phones serve as vehicles that can be used to mobilize the millions of cedis held outside the banking sector,” he said.
The mobile revolution would present a significant opportunity to ensure financial inclusion to rope in the 70% of the bankable population.
But the Vice President remarked that, “banks and the telcos are operating in silos,” hence the need for the interoperability between the telcos for example.
“I therefore fully support the call for us to go beyond using mobile money for cash-in, cash-out, and more importantly, use it at merchant points, use it for bulk payments, bill payments etc. With the ongoing e-governance projects, our public sector institutions should be ready to accept electronic payments to give meaning to the various efforts at introducing different electronic payment channels.”
In another development, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Y. Addison, said the launch of the mobile money interoperability attests to the Bank of Ghana’s broad objective of promoting an all-inclusive safe and sound financial sector, and collaborations between the financial sector and the communications sector.
Presently a large segment of the population who previously unbanked are being absorbed into the financial services sector, via, mobile money.
The number of mobile money transactions alone have grown by about 177 percent between 2013 and March 2018, reaching total transactions of 312.93million and valued at GHc52.35 billion in March 2018.
This compares with 48.24 million transactions valued at GHc5.91 billion in March 2015. There are 25.3 million mobile money accounts currently as compared with 8.20 million in the same comparative periods.
Banks can leverage on the existing 143,418 mobile money agents to reach out to the unbanked.
Mobile Money Interoperability
This interoperability will eliminate the complexities associated with transfers across various mobile money networks in Ghana, and also reduce the cost of initiating transactions across networks, as customers will no longer need the services of a third-party payment provider.
This phase of the interoperability will also allow mobile customers to move money from their mobile money accounts to bank accounts and vice versa.
The effective implementation and utilization of this interoperability would make Ghana a cash-lite economy.
The government had “two more aspects of interoperability that we have to complete in the next couple of months, the second phase.” Said Dr. Bawumia.
Dr. Bawumia said this “will not only bring about efficiency and convenience, but will also save this country lots of money that we spend in maintaining currency notes.”
The Vice President Bawumia later disclosed that the new interoperability system would cost the country less than $4 million after the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems took charge of the project.
The launch is a collaborative efforts among banks, mobile money operators, GhIPSS and the Bank of Ghana.
Shiela Williams
