NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

The Central Bank announced a new set of guidelines for the service about a year ago to improve money transfer via mobile phones.

The new regulatory regime among others empowered telecom companies to also own and run the electronic money business like banks. However, it appears the banks are rather concerned about the threat posed by mobile money services. For instance the August 2015 Telecom Subscriptions Report by the National Communications Authority (NCA), posits that mobile money made significant strides between 2012 and 2015.

According to the report, registered subscribers increased from 3.8 million to 13.1 million while registered agents also increased over tenfold from 8,660 to 79,747 within the three year period. A recent survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers [PwC] indicated that over 70 percent of CEOs and Heads of e-banking services in Ghana view mobile money as both a threat and at the same time an opportunity.

Also, about 56 percent of banks are of the view that mobile money presents threats to the traditional ways in which the industry operates, even if these threats do not measure up to the opportunity.