Simply registering your SIM card for mobile money transaction does not guarantee you the ability to transact any amount you want with your mobile money wallet. You need to know the category of mobile money customer you are, so you know the maximum amount your wallet can hold, and how much you can transaction in a day and in a month.
Basically, there are three categories of mobile money customers, as per the regulator, Bank of Ghana’s guidelines, and each telco decide how much they allow each category of customers transact in a day or in a month.
Again, the category you belong to also determines how much money you can hold on your mobile wallet within a month. Once you cross your monthly threshold, your wallet will not be able to receive any more money. In the same manner, once you cross your daily or monthly transaction threshold, you are done for the period.
But there is a way out, if you want to boost your daily and monthly transaction thresholds. The answer is in knowing what the three categories are, and what is required to belong to one or the other. And it differs for each network.
MTN sticks with the regulator’s description for the three categories – Minimum KYC (know your customer), Medium KYC and Enhanced KYC, while AirtelTigo prefers to describe the three categories as Bronze, Gold and Platinum customers; and Vodafone calls them Tier 0, Tier 1 and Tier 2 customers.
Basically the requirements for various categories are similar for all three networks, except with AirtelTigo’s Bronze category, which requires “any photo ID”, whether verifiable or not.
Again the amounts for the various categories are the same for all three telcos, so pay attention if use any of the three and you are a mobile money customer.
MTN
If you are an MTN Mobile Money customer, you should pay attention to the following:
Minimum KYC means the same valid ID you used in registering your SIM card, is enough to also register for Mobile Money. That qualifies you to hold a maximum of GHC1,000 in your wallet at any given time. It means once the money in your wallet reaches GHC1,000, you CANNOT receive any more money, unless you transact (spend or transfer) some of that money.
It is important to note that GHC1,000 is the regular amount, but in this era of COVID-19, MTN, with the blessing of BoG, has boosted the maximum balance for Minimum KYC customers to GHC2,000.
With regards to daily transaction, you are allowed to spend and or transfer a total of GHC300 for the day. What this means is in case you transfer GHC200 to another person for the day, you would be left with GHC100 to transact for the day, even if you have more than GHC100 in your wallet. Similarly, if you transfer GHC100, you will be left with the chance to spend an additional GHC200 irrespective of the fact that you may have more than GHC200 balance in your wallet.
Again, due to COVID-19, that daily transaction figure is gone up to GHC1,000 until further notice.
Finally, here is the tricky one, which very few people even know about. There is a limit to how much you can transact in a month. For Minimum KYC, the figure is GHC3,000; nothing more. So if you transact GHC3,000 within a week or a few days in a particular month, you are done for the month till the next month. But under COVID-19 you can now spend GHC6,000 till further notice.
So if the way you use your mobile wallet require that you should keep more than GHC1,000 on your wallet, spend more than GHC300 a day, and more than GHC3,000 a month, you can do so by meeting the requirement for a Medium KYC customer to boost your maximum balance, as well as daily and monthly transaction thresholds.
For a Medium KYC customer on MTN Mobile Money, you are required to provide the same ID you used to register your SIM, and then you will be given a form to fill at MTN and provide some specific information. Once you do that, your threshold will be boosted as follow: maximum wallet balance – GHC 10,000, total daily transaction – GHC2,000 and total monthly transaction – GHC20,000.
So even though you are allowed to hold up to GHC10,000 in your wallet, you can only transact a total of GHC1,000 in a day, and you have the opportunity to transact at most GHC20,000 in the month. This is far better than the GHC1,000 maximum balance, GHC300 daily transaction and GHC2,000 monthly transaction for Minimum KYC customers.
Again, due to COVID-19, the Medium KYC threshold has been given a significant boost – GHC15,000 maximum balance, GHC5,000 daily transaction and unlimited monthly transaction, which is good news, but temporal.
Then the big one is Enhanced KYC – with this one, in addition to the requirements for Medium KYC, you would also be required to provide proof of address, i.e. utility bill, bank statement or tax certificate – either of the three.
Once you do that you qualify for GHC20,000 maximum balance on your wallet, GHC5,000 daily transaction and GHC50,000 monthly transaction. Under COVID-19, your maximum wallet balance is now GHC30,000, daily transaction is GHC10,000 and monthly transaction is unlimited. Again, that is temporal.
AirtelTigo
As stated above, at AirtelTigo, a Minimum KYC customer is described as a Bronze customer, but in terms of the requirement, AirtelTigo wrote on the website that “any photo ID”, can be used for registering a mobile money wallet, which suggests that even if the ID card is not verifiable, it can be used to register mobile money wallet on AirtelTigo, which is something for the regulator to look at.
Contrarily, for Gold customers, who are comparable to Medium KYC customers on MTN, the requirement categorically states that a valid National ID (Ghana Card), Voter ID, Driver’s License, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) ID, SSNIT ID, or Passport, which is different from just any photo ID. The money threshold is the same as that of MTN, as stated above.
The big one is the Platinum customers, who are required to provide everything the Gold customers provide, plus at least one of the following: Registered Tenancy Agreement, Utility Bill, Income Tax Certificate, Bank Statement, Reference Letter, or Employer’s reference letter. The threshold, again, are same.
Vodafone
Vodafone Cash customers are categorized into Tier 0, Tier 1 and Tier 2.
By way of the requirements for Vodafone Cash registration, Tier 0 is equivalent to Minimum KYC customers on MTN; just as Tier 1 is to Medium KYC and Tier 2 is to Enhanced KYC customers. Similarly, the amounts for maximum wallet balance, daily transaction limit, and monthly transaction limit are the same as MTN’s.
In this Covid-19 era, Vodafone has also boosted that amount for all three categories to the same limit as MTN has, which is basically in line with the BoG recommendations.
So based on the foregoing, it is clear that if you do not have a mobile money wallet at all, and you just want an entry point access, all you need is the same ID card you used in registering the SIM, or at least a similar one. Then if you want to boost your threshold to something higher, the requirements are also stated above, depending on which network you belong to.
So do not join the group of people who ignorantly allege that their network is discriminating between customers by giving some people higher threshold and others lower ones. Know what the requirements are and provide them according to your needs and you will be sorted out.
