The Mobile Money Advocacy Group (MoMAG) has immediately suspended the decision to limit mobile money withdrawals to GHC 1000.
It comes after a meetings with the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications regarding what they describe as meagre and static commissions.
The Mobile Money agents on 1 December began restricting mobile money withdrawals to a maximum of GHC1000 at a time in a bid to shore up the profits on their investments and to drum home their grievances about the low commissions.
Their complaint in chief was the telcos had refused to increase their commissions since the inception of mobile money 15 years ago, and any amount withdrawn from GHS1,000 upwards attract only ghs10 fee, which is not in their interest.
MTN in the past tried to increase the maximum from from ghs10 to ghs20 just to put some money in the pockets of the agents but Bank of Ghana stopped that move upon a loud public outcry. The agents therefore implemented the GHS1,000 maximum withdrawal as way of ensuring they made GHS10 off every pesewa withdrawn.
Some agents have been telling Techfocus24 that implementing that measure has not been particularly easy for them because they have business relationships with people who withdraw higher amounts than ghs1000 on the regular and such a policy will only make such persons look for alternatives.
So, the statement issued by MoMAG said “We are by this, urging MoMAG members to revert to the initial mode of transaction, while we wait for the outcome of the discussions in the coming year, 2004.”
“I write on behalf of the Executive Board MoMAG to inform you that, we have had meetings with the relevant authorities, regarding our meagre and static commissions and the subsequent action of withdrawal of GHȻ 1,000and have concluded on the following.
“That, we are suspending with immediate effect the action on GHȻ1000 withdrawals for a while as we wait for the final resolution as promised by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications and other Telcos. We believe that failure to heed to this call of truncating this action, will amount to disrespect to this institution who had a fruitful meeting with us – the four mobile money associations. We think it will be prudent to hold on with the action for now.””
“We are by this, urging MoMAG members to revert to the initial mode of transaction, while we wait for the outcome of the discussions in the coming year, 2024,” the MoMAG statement said.
