Ghana Is First In Africa to Introduce Mobile Money Interoperability – Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said that the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo introduced the Mobile Money (MoMo) Interoperability to make it easier for persons to engage in MoMo transactions.

Ghana was the first in Africa to have introduced such initiative, he said.

Because of interoperability, he said, the mobile money account acts like bank account because they are very much interoperable.

Dr Bawumia was speaking at the Biennial Joint Session of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, A.M.E.Zion church in Accra on Thursday August 25.

He said “Governments are elected to solve problems, it is therefore important as politicians who have been given the mandate to govern to tell the people what specific problems we have solved since we assumed office. So at this stage, in the context of all the issues that we are dealing with, the cost of living going up so astronomically, let me share with you some of the problems that we have solved or are solving over the last six years we have been in government.

“We have implemented the National Identification system the Ghana Card, our first time since independence. Today, if you have a Ghana Card and you are a student, you no longer need a guarantor to get a loan for the tertiary education.

“We did not have a workable address system, today, we have implemented a national digital property address system. There is no place in Ghana, village or town, wherever that does not have a digital address because Ghana now has a digital address system. We have implemented Mobile Money interoperability, today customers of one telco can transfer mobile money to another telco.

“Before, you couldn’t move money from MTN to Vodafone but today, you can do that because of interoperability. Because of interoperability you can also move money from your bank account to your mobile money wallet and mobile money wallet to your bank account, you can even receive remittances from abroad straight into your mobile phone and you don’t have to go to your bank.

“Ghana is the only country in Africa that has implemented this mobile money interoperability that has made Ghana the fastest growing Mobile Money market in Africa. Because of interoperability, it means the mobile money account acts like bank account because they are very much interoperable.

“So today, if you look at operating a mobile money account, making payments, it is just like someone having a bank account. Most people don’t even use their bank account anymore, they just use the mobile money account. When we came into office this was one of the problems we wanted to solve and by making this interoperability 90 per cent of adult Ghanaians either have MoMo account or a bank account and with the two functioning in similar ways.”