The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has released a list of 26 approved electronic money issuers (mobile money operators) and payment service providers in the country, but conspicuously missing on that list is the mobile money market leader, MTN.
The list, published on the BoG website and dated April 1, 2021, named five dedicated electronic money issuers and 21 payment service providers.
The five mobile money operators named were Airtel Mobile Commerce (Ghana) Limited, GCB G-Money, Yup Ghana Limited, Vodafone Mobile Financial Services Limited and Zeepay Ghana Limited.
But MTN MobileMoney Limited, which boasts of a commanding lead on the market, and has recently taken the lead to implement ID requirement for mobile money cash out, is not on the the list of approved operators.
Localization deadline extendedÂ
Checks by TechGH24 revealed that MTN was not put on the list because they are yet to meet the 30% mobile money business localization requirement, and they have been given time to complete that.
It would be recalled that BoG extended the deadline to meet the 30% localization of mobile money operations as required by the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987) to 15 January, 2022.
But the source said, being absent from the list of operators which have regulatory approval does not mean MTN MobileMoney cannot operate legally.
It explained that each of the operators were given time to meet the 30% requirement while they were still operating and the same gesture has been extended to MTN.
The new list follows the passage of the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987) in accordance with the licensing application pack for payment service providers.
The Act amended and consolidated the laws relating to mobile money, payment systems and payment services to regulate institutions that carry on payment services and electronic money business.
Below is the full list of approved mobile money operators and electronic payment service providers.
Dedicated electronic money issuers (MoMo operators)
- Airtel Mobile Commerce (Ghana) Limited
- GCB G-Money
- Yup Ghana Limited
- Vodafone Mobile Financial Services Limited
- Zeepay Ghana Limited
Electronic payment service providers
- AppsNmobile Solutions Limited
- Bsystems Limited
- Cellulant Ghana Limited
- Dreamoval Limited
- Emergent Payments Ghana Limited
- Etranzact Limited
- ExpressPay Ghana Limited
- Fast Pace Transfer Limited
- Global Accelerex Ghana Ltd
- Halges Financial Technologies Limited
- Hubtel Limited
- IT Consortium Limited
- MFS Ghana Limited
- Moolre Limited
- Nfortics Ghana Limited
- Nsano Limited
- PaySwitch Ghana Limited
- Transsnet Payments Ghana Limited
- Techfin Innovations Ltd
- ZappGhana Limited
- Titan Payment Systems
