Telecoms Giant, MTN Ghana has launched its 10th anniversary in mobile money services. 

The event saw the telecoms firm emphasize its resolve to making mobile money the main medium for cash transactions in the country. 

Speaking at the launch, Head of Mobile Money Transactions, Eli Hini, justified the role of mobile money transaction as a tool of reducing the cost involved in the printout and maintenance of the cedi.

The company went through discussions and deliberations with technology experts, industry regulators and stakeholders, Eli Hini added.

“We expect mobile money to be the preferred mobile channel to do any financial transaction. We believe that as we journey, the government’s program of digitizing the economy will make sure that electronic payment becomes the way of life. This could help us reduce the cost printing and maintaining currencies,” he stated.

Holders of mobile money accounts have been warned to be vigilant against fraudsters and cybercrime as the rate of fraud keeps increasing by the day. Chief Executive of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevor, has been explaining to Joy Business how the telecom giant is using public education as a tool of dealing with this menace.

“Our commitment to customers continue to focus and invest in education and the more our customers resist the temptation to respond to customers, that’s the biggest defence we could put in front of fraudsters. We’ve seen a significant reduction in the past year because consumers are becoming more aware,” he said.

At the launch of the celebration on Thursday at the Madina Market in Accra, over 25 MoMo customers were selected randomly and each rewarded with Gh¢500. 

The MoMo service began with MTN’s desire to get the mobile phone to go beyond the ordinary, Mr Adadevor said. 

MTN began working on MoMO and started testing the system ahead of the launch.

From less than 100,000 after 6months of launch, he said, MoMo’s registered subscriber numbers have reached the 14 million milestones over the 10 year period.

MoMo Interoperability

Meanwhile, Mobile Money Interoperability - a system that makes mobile money transactions among different networks possible - has hit GH¢95.88million in value for the first quarter of 2019, the Payment Systems Statistics report published by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS) has revealed.

The report, published by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS), shows that of all the services offered by the mobile money interoperability platform – namely, wallet to wallet, wallet to account, and wallet to E-Zwich – it was wallet to wallet that recorded the highest transactions of GH¢85.73million, representing 89.4 per cent of all transactions.