By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana
The over six million registered customers of MTN Mobile Money will soon stand a chance of earning some interest on money kept in their wallets. This new move, which is soon to be implemented by MTN Ghana, will see customers on the Mobile Money platform making some extra cash on their monies.
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Ghana Ebenezer Twum Asante, told Biztechafrica that plans for the smooth implementation of this initiative are far advanced and that MTN is now engaging the banks to agree on the level of interest and as soon as that is done, customers on the Mobile Money platform will be then be notified as to the level of interest they will be earning based on the amount of money in their electronic wallet.
Impressed with current achievement of 35,000 MTN Mobile Money merchants nationwide as of Feb ’16, Mr Twum Asante believes that the services on the platform which includes Airtime TopUp, Bill Payment (ECG, DStv, MTN Post-paid Bill, GOtv), General Payment, Bulk Payment(Payroll), School Fees, LinktoBankAccount(*500#), Mi-LifeInsurance(*165#), Microsavings and Investment (Msusu), ATM Cardless Withdrawal(*511#;with5banks) and International remittance are very rich and meet the demands of the customer.
He mentioned Mi-LifeInsurance and Microsavings as two key services on the platform geared towards driving patronage of for these respective sectors.
“Insurance is an important survey and because the Insurance penetration in this country is really low and if you consider the number of customers we have and their Insurance needs, it is going to be difficult for any brick and mortar Insurance entity to be able to address their needs. The cost of reach physically will be very expensive so we believe the best means of reaching these customers and offering them valuable insurance cover will be through mobile hence the introduction of Mi-LifeInsurance.
Microsavings and Investments, customers have been with us, we know them very well, we interact with them, we engage them, they’ve stay on the network, and we know their behaviour and we know how much they are spending. So why will it not be possible that the customer is at a funeral somewhere and has run out of money and need some quit SOS, why should it not be possible for MTN through a Saving and Loan partnership with an existing bank to lend them something to turn around with and then pay within two day, three day or even one week? It should be possible to do that”, he said
Recently awarded the first and only EMI in Ghana to be ISO 27001 certified, MTN Ghana has demonstrated its commitment to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to it teeming customers nationwide through the acquisition of the 800MHZ 4G LTE spectrum license from the National Communications Authority.
