The total amount increased by over 155 percent from April 2020 to April 2021.
Apart from a few periods of reduction and marginal monthly increases during the past 12 months, the value of mobile money transactions in Ghana has generally seen a consistent rise.
According to the Central Bank’s Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data Report, the value of mobile money transactions jumped from GHS32.8 billion in April last year to GHS83.8 billion in April this year.
The total number (volume) of transactions also shot up by 77 percent, from 182 million in April last year to 323 million over the same 12-month period.
The surge in mobile money transaction started March last year due to the increase in digital rather than physical financial transactions as a result of Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
It however remained fairly stable till December 2020 when it saw a spike possibly due to the Christmas season.
During the same 12 month period the number of registered mobile money wallets also increased from 34.9 million to 42.1 million, but active wallets grew from 14.5 million to 17.2 million, meaning less than half of the registered mobile money wallets were active.
The report also captured the number of registered mobile money agents, which increased from 338,000 to 485,000, but active number of agents increased from 254,000 to 386,000 over the same period.
Interoperability
Meanwhile, the value of Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI) transactions saw a whooping jump of over 600 percent from GHS186 million to about GHS1.37 billion over the period, while volume of transaction on that platform also exponentially from 2.3 million to 8.5 million.
This can be attributed to increased awareness that funds can now be transferred across wallets of different telecommunication networks, plus the zero rating of up to GHC100 transfer on that platform to complement the efforts of telcos during the Covid-19 period.
MoMo Space
Currently, there are six registered mobile money operators in the country – MTN MobileMoney, Vodafone Cash, AirtelTigo Money, Zeepay, G-Money and YUP.
Out of the six, MTN MobileMoney commands an overwhelmingly huge percentage of the market, while the others are just managing to survive in that space.
But Zeepay, which is not a legacy mobile money operator and to it license only March last year, is well on its way to take a huge chunk of the market as its platform is already universal and serves as an alternative wallet for customers on all the legacy networks.
Zeepay’s added advantage is that, it runs a remittance technology that allows inbound remittances to terminate directly into customers mobile wallets, rather than recipients going to queue in banking halls to receive their money.
The company has hinted it is working with a scientific strategy to ensure that over time those remittances, which totaled US$350 million last year alone, will terminate in Zeepay wallets rather than any other mobile wallet.
