MTN has fulfilled a Bank of Ghana directive to telcos for ISO 27001 certification for their mobile money services, becoming the first among competitors.

The central bank directive is in accordance with the new Electronic Money Issuers (EMI) guidelines

As a result, MTN Mobile Money Limited, a subsidiary of MTN Ghana is the first and only mobile money platform to have gained ISO 27001 certification in the country so far.

All the other telcos which have mobile money services (Airtel, Tigo and Vodafone) could not meet the requirement on time, so they have been given extra time to get their act together.

ISO 27001 certification is the most reliable information security and management  standards certification, which indicates that an organization has the most reliable systems, processes and people to ensure the highest standards in managing information on its platform.

It is granted by the world renown International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which also gives internationally recognized standards certifications for management of various sectors like health, environment, energy, anti bribery, risk, social responsibility food safety and others, which is an endorsement of reliability.

MTN Ghana CEO Ebenezer Twum Asante told Adom News in an exclusive interview that apart from being the first to be certified in country, MTN Ghana's Mobile Money subsidiary is also the first in the MTN Group and in the a West African Sub-region to be ISO 27001 certified.

He said the certification is indicative of the fact that customers could have confidence in the MTN Mobile Money platform and trust it with sensitive financial and personal information.

"It is all about trust and confidence and it only shows that our team works hard to give our valued customers not just a reliable service but also ensure that their information with us is tightly secured," he said.

Asante lauded the MTN Mobile Money team, led by Eli Hini, for the premium they place on putting together a service that makes life convenient for customers in the most safe and reliable way.

MTN Mobile Money Limited has currently registered about six million customers, representing a whopping 70% of the mobile money market in Ghana.

It has over 35,000 merchants nationwide and is doing at least 26 million transactions a month, including money transfer, airtime top-up, bills payment (ECG, DStv, MTN Post-paid Bill, GOtv), General Payment, Bulk Payment (Payroll), School Fees, Link to Bank Account, Mi-Life Insurance, Micro savings and Investment (Msusu), ATM Cardless Withdrawal, and International remittance.

The MTN CEO reported that Mobile Money contributed some more than six per cent of the over GHC2.3 billion total revenue of the company by the close of December 2015.

Interest on float

Meanwhile, MTN said they are almost at the point where they will start paying customers interest on moneys in their mobile money wallets.

There was a stalemate between telcos and banks on how much interest and how the interest should be paid, but the Central Bank has now given a clear direction for banks to pay anything between 1.5 and 7 per cent interest to the telcos to then forward at least 80 per cent of it to their customers.

Asante said "MTN has completed negotiations with about 80 percent of partner banks on what interests to pay and so in a short while we will start paying interest on moneys in people's wallets," he said.