
Ghana mobile money regulatory environment is the best in the world according to the GSMA Mobile Money Regulatory Index (MMRI) 2024.
The index, based on 40 indicators under six broad areas, indicates that Ghana scored 95.06%, which represents a 2.5 percentage points over that of the previous year’s score of 92.56%, which placed Ghana third behind Rwanda (93.47%) and Pakistan (92.87%).
This year, Rwanda came second to Ghana with exactly 95% and Pakistan scored 92.81%, behind three other countries; Qatar – 94.21%, Malawi – 93.88% and El Salvador – 93.75%.
Other countries that made it to the 90% score category were Brazil – 91.13%, Colombia – 90.56%, Iraq – 91.39%, Lesotho – 92.58%, Mexico – 91.2% and Peru, 90.58%.
The GSMA Mobile Money Regulatory Index has since 2018, provided a non-binary and objective assessment of the extent to which regulatory frameworks enable mobile money services to thrive
This year the spotlight was on 90 countries, and six broad areas used in determining the scores were Transparency and Disclosure Requirements (15%), Authorization (25%), Consumer Protection (15%), Integrity (15%), Oversight of Operation, Organisation and Governance (15%), and Policy Enablement (15%).
Ghana made full score on three areas – Transparency and Disclosure Requirements, Authorization, Consumer Protection; scored over 90% in two – Integrity and Oversight of Operation, Organisation and Governance, and about 84% in Policy Enablement.
Speaking of financial inclusion, the report particularly lauded countries like Ghana, which have implemented interoperability policies, driving financial inclusion in a very big way.
In Ghana, the mobile money interoperability (MMI) platform, was built by the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS), which is an agency of the Bank of Ghana.
The MMI platform forms part of a financial inclusion triangle built by GhIPSS to ensure that no Ghanaian is left behind in the drive towards ensure complete financial inclusions. On the back of GhIPSS’s innovations, the financial inclusion gap has been bridged significantly from below 70% in 2023 to over 90% currently.
GhIPSS continues to lead the charge to ensure that the gap is further bridged through the rollout of the GHQR by all partner institutions, and also on the back of affordable digital finance service, which it has already started through the bank-based GhanaPay mobile money wallet.
Indeed, in the 2024 State of Inclusive Instant Payments Systems (SIIPS) in Africa Report, put together by the AfricaNenda Foundation, Ghana still stands tall as one of nine countries in Africa with the most progressed instant payment system on the continent.
The GSMA MMRI report also expressed concern about the implementation of mobile money consumer taxes like electronic transfer levy (e-levy) in Ghana and a few other countries, which poses a threat to the drive towards financial inclusion.
It noted that the implementation of consumer taxes on mobile money has affected transaction volumes and values, which indicates that such taxes are inimical to adoption of mobile money and to financial inclusions.
In Ghana, the recently elected president, John Mahama, made a campaign promise to scrap the e-levy. Ghanaians look forward to the fulfilment of the promises, even though experts have said that scrapping e-levy will create a huge gap in the countries domestic revenue flow.
