MTN Moving Ghana's Cashless Economy With Mobile Money Month

acting Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr. Ebenezer Asante, Speaking At The Launch Of MTN Mobile Money Month

Ghana's market leader in the telecommunications industry, MTN is driving along a path that would go a long way to boost efforts to make the economy of Ghana a cashless industry.

It is for this reason that the company has launched and dedicated the whole month of August dubbed 'MTN Mobile Money Month' simply to embark on vigorous awareness to further expand the MTN Mobile Money service and to suit growing demands of modern day transactions.

In his official address at the launch of the project, the acting Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr. Ebenezer Asante, revealed that the campaign is to further provide the necessary information to subscribers to take full advantage of the many opportunities mobile money presents to users and most importantly for subscribers to achieve value for themselves.

'A year ago, we launched the Mobile Money Month to promote and begin national discussion on a cashless society and proudly we achieved this objective with stakeholders still sustaining various discussions on it.

.....This year, our theme 'MTN Mobile Money: It's Fast, Easy, Every Time, Everywhere' will highlight the benefits of Mobile Money , its availability and above all the convenience it provides customers to help them achieve new strides in their businesses and improve the quality of their lives,' the acting MTN CEO emphasized.

He admitted that mobile payments were evolving rapidly and changing the way consumers and businesses operated.

Mr. Asante noted that the year 2013 was predicted by many industry watchers around the world as the year in which mobile payment and commerce will have a phenomenal boom.

He said M-Commerce has dramatically changed the way brands reach customers, making it faster and easier for consumers to make purchases on the fly while avoiding the hustle and bustle traffic. 2013 may also finally be the year for video content in M-Commerce.

'A few businesses have dabbled in it but with faster broadband speeds enabling retailers to use rich media content, expect mass adoption in 2013 but, in an industry where change is the only constant, predicting what lies around the corner is anyone's guess. No doubt 2013 will be fascinating and innovative year for mobile commerce,' the acting MTN CEO indicated.

He went on to add that MTN recognized the need of its subscribers especially, their desire to go about their businesses and any other monetary transaction with ease and in real time.

'We also recognized that since the introduction of Mobile Money Services, all over the world and particularly in Ghana, its usage has risen tremendously in recent years, an indication that the service is filling voids which for many years have been overlooked.

.....Currently, Mobile Money is in 14 of our operations with over 10million customers and to further enhance the knowledge and increase usage of our subscribers on the MTN Mobile Money services, we have put together very interesting programs and activities to help us achieve this objective,' Mr. Asante said.

He also announced that the company will embark on activation of new users, promotions, to reward existing and new customers of MTN Mobile Money services, as well as customer education programs on radio and TV to help customers appreciate the various ways MTN Mobile Money services can make their lives easier and convenient.

He, further, disclosed that in a survey carried out by Ericsson dubbed 'Consumer Lab Analytical Platform' on Mobile Money usage in Ghana and two other African countries for 2012/2013, indicated that even though mobile penetration in Ghana has crossed 90% mark, only 9% of mobile phone owners use Mobile Money services in the country.

Mr. Asante said Ericsson's Survey Report showed that of the total number of Mobile Money users in Ghana, 6% used mobile payments which include airtime top-up, merchant payments, salary payments and bill payments.

'3% use Mobile banking (balance enquiry, withdrawals, deposits and credit service and 1% use Mobile Money transfers both domestically and across borders. It stated that the top three uses of M-Commerce in Ghana are airtime purchase, accessing of bank account information and money transfer.

.....This is in spite of the fact that MTN and its partners such as the banks, shops, restaurants, utility companies and others are offering a throng of M-Commerce services such as utility bill payment, shopping, payment at restaurants, cashing money at the ATM, M-Insurance and many others,' the acting MTN CEO stated.

acting Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr. Ebenezer Asante, Speaking At The Launch Of MTN Mobile Money Month