Mobile Money Interoperability
Government is set to roll out phase two of the Mobile Money Interoperability Project on Wednesday, November 28, 2018.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who briefed the media yesterday at the Information Ministry’s bi-weekly press briefings, said the phase two of the project has been successfully completed.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in May this year launched the phase one of the Mobile Money Interoperability project.
The launch of mobile money payment interoperability system has largely addressed difficulties associated with traditional banking services such as the difficulty in opening bank accounts, high costs associated with maintaining a bank account relative to customers’ income levels, the need to have basic literacy, administration and record-keeping abilities and English-language capacity to operate a bank account and sheer intimidating nature of banking halls.
The interoperability platform was necessitated to allow seamless flow of transactions across mobile money, bank and other payment systems.
The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) was tasked to lead the project.
Following the launch of the first phase, customers were given the opportunity to move freely monies from mobile money to mobile money accounts across different networks.
This meant that customers, who have mobile money accounts with, for instance MTN, could easily transfer or receive money from other networks such as Airtel-Tigo or Vodafone.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said the phase recorded about 1.3 million individual transactions, amounting to GH¢134 million.
He said “phase two has completed the interconnection between Mobile Money and ezwich (Ghana’s biometric smart card system). This makes Ghana one of the few countries to achieve this universal interoperability. Phase two completes the financial inclusion triangle that connects bank accounts, MoMo wallet and ezwich.”
Procedure
According to him, “Mobile Money subscribers and e-zwich cardholders wishing to move money across these payment platforms can now do so seamlessly from their phones or any e-zwich device such as Poses at the banks and agent locations.
Similarly, the interconnection of mobile money and e-zwich platforms to the gh-link platform means customers can conveniently move funds across all three platforms: bank accounts, Mobile Money wallets and e-zwich cards.”
He added thatwith the successful roll out of phase II, customers will be able to send and receive money directly from each other, irrespective oftheir payment platform, allowing them more accessibility and convenience.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah indicated that “achieving this level of interoperability contributes to digitizing cash in the Ghanaian economy, increasing efficiency of payments and improving financial inclusion by bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked.”
He added that it would also enable free flow of funds among all the three platforms; allowing the banked and the unbanked to interact at the same level.
The interconnection of the three platforms creates a world of opportunities for Fintechs to develop a plethora of services/payment solutions for the public.
By Melvin Tarlue