Bawumia’s Mobile Money Interoperability Yields Results

Brong-Ahafo Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kofi Ofosu Boateng, has said the tremendous work done by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and President Akufo-Addo has bore fruits barely five months into the introduction of the mobile money interoperability service in the country.

He said government's commitment to supporting start-ups through policies and programmes designed to ensure the success of the mobile money interoperability system has given rise to the success of the project.

His comments follows latest data from the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), which indicates that over 1.1 million transactions were recorded at the end of September with the total value of cross-network transactions amounted to about GH¢ 99.3 million.

According to GhlPSS, in its first month of operations, only 96,000 transactions took place, but that figure has risen steadily over the period to over 312,000 transactions in the month of September alone.

The Chief Executive of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse, said the continuous growth in the volume of transactions clearly shows that the mobile money interoperability has come to fulfil a need.

Last year, the vice president issued a challenged to the Bank of Ghana, Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), telcos and financial institutions to ensure that mobile money platforms are interoperable to make banking services more accessible to the large unbanked population, estimated to be about 70 per cent.

Launching the mobile money interoperability system in May this year, Vice President Dr. Bawumia explained that the mobile money payment interoperability system is expected to largely eliminate the difficulties associated with traditional banking services such as the difficulty in opening bank accounts, the high costs associated with maintaining a bank account relative to customers' income levels, the need to have basic literacy, administration and record keeping abilities, among others.

Mr. Boateng, in an interview with the media in Sunyani, praised Dr. Bawumia for providing “a financial transactions engine that is versatile, efficient, robust, and enhances patronage.

He said the fulfilment of this singular achievement re-echoes President Akufo-Addo's belief that with the right conditions and leadership, “there is nothing we cannot achieve as a people.”