By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Telecom Chamber, Mr. Kwaku Sakyi Addo, has described the recent payment of interest on mobile wallets by network operators in the country as an exciting milestone for both operators and customers.
According to him this milestone underscores the mobile industry’s commitment to delivering convenient and life-enhancing financial services to consumers and also provides an incentive for all players to support the growth of mobile money
In a statement signed by the Head of Research & Communications at the Chamber, Derek B. Laryea and copied to Biztechafrica in Accra, it noted that mobile operators in the electronic money business are paying interests totaling ¢15.6 million to over 15million customers across the country for the first half of 2016.
The eMoney issuers – Airtel Money, MTN Mobile Money, Tigo Cash and Vodafone Cash are complying with the Electronic Money Issuers Guidelines issued in July 2015 by the Central Bank.
The statement revealed that accrued interest to be paid by mobile money operators is the daily electronic cash, which is aggregated over a month and then a quarter. It said the interests will be paid in two installments reflecting payments for each of the first two quarters of 2016.
“Customers will be notified with dates for third quarter payments following reviews and further directives from the Central Bank. Mobile Operators have partner banks with whom the cash generated by customers are lodged in a float, which attracts interest” it stated.
“The Central Bank requires the partner banks to pay between 1.5 to 7% interests per annum to mobile operators who in turn are obliged to pay 80% of the interest received to customers. The remaining 20% is retained by the mobile operator to drive further financial inclusion, customer acquisition activities” it added.
The statement further called the latest development a win -win for the customers, partner banks and the e-money issuers and further intimated that the partner banks would continue to benefit from a relatively stable, large and growing deposit balance, the emoney issuers/providers would benefit from retaining up to 20% of the interest and customers would benefit by earning at least 80% of the interest.
