More consumers are ditching the use of cheque for banking transactions as mobile money transactions far outstripped that of cheque transactions by GH¢232 billion in the first four months of this year, data from the Bank of Ghana has stated.

If the trend continues, the total value of mobile money transactions will surpass cheque transactions by far more than the GH¢389 billion recorded for the whole of last year.

According to the data from the Bank of Ghana, the value of mobile money transactions in January, February, March and April were estimated at GH¢67.1 billion, GH¢67.9 billion, GH¢82.3 billion and GH¢83.8 billion respectively.

That of cheque transactions were GH¢17.0 billion, GH¢15.5 billion, GH¢18.3 billion and GH¢17.5 billion in January, February, March and April respectively.

The high use of MoMo for financial transactions indicates that many more Ghanaians particularly retail consumers prefer using their mobile money accounts for deposits or funds transfer than using the banking system.

Though banks undertake mobile money transactions for the telecom firms as third party vendors, they could be losing out in retaining deposits if they do not develop their own mobile money products.

Those who have must however intensify the marketing of their products to create more awareness about their existence. Failure to do so will mean losing out on huge revenue as more than 17.2 million Ghanaians are active mobile money users.

Going forward, cheque transactions will become the primary commodity of wholesale or corporate consumers who have no choice but to issue cheques for payments because of the amount of money involved.

Ghana is presently ranked number one in MoMo in West Africa, but trails several countries in the East and Southern Africa.

MoMo transactions exceeds cheque transactions by GH¢389bn in 2020

Total value of mobile money transactions far exceeded the value of cheque transactions, by GH¢389 billion last year, data from the Bank of Ghana has revealed.

Whilst, total value of MoMo transactions was estimated at about GH¢569 billion in 2020, that of cheques was about GH¢180 billion.

The significant difference between the total value of mobile money transactions and cheque for last year indicates that majority of consumers, particularly retail customers, have now accepted MoMo for payment and transactions rather than cheque clearing. This is largely because it is instant, faster, convenient and less cumbersome.