My bankers are cheating me. It costs them about ₵5 to transfer ₵10,000 for me — yet they charge ₵100. That extra ₵95 is not service; it’s daylight robbery dressed up as “bank charges.”

Percentage-based transfer fees are a scam. Processing ₵100 costs the same as processing ₵100,000. By taking a percentage, banks punish customers moving large sums, discourage digital transactions, and push people back to cash.

This robbery started with the E-Levy on 1 May 2022, when banks deducted 1.5% on transfers for the state. The rate dropped to 1% in January 2023. Then, on 1st January 2025, the tax was repealed — but the banks have since maintained the 1%, simply renaming it “processing fee”, “interoperability fee” or “service charge” and quietly pocketing it.

Other countries have faced this abuse — and killed it. In 2021, Kenya’s Central Bank capped mobile money and bank transfer fees, replacing percentages with flat or tiered rates.

On 1st January 2020, Nigeria’s Central Bank fixed electronic transfer charges, banning percentage deductions above set limits. In 2019, India’s Reserve Bank scrapped percentage-based fees for many digital transfers, replacing them with low flat charges to encourage cashless payments.

So why has Ghana embraced the very demon other nations have exorcised — and allowed it to possess our financial system?

The Bank of Ghana must act. Transfer fees should reflect real costs, not serve as a silent tax to fatten bank profits. A flat fee of ₵3–₵10 is more than enough. The rest is greed — and it must stop, from both the banks and the telcos.