Mobile money records growth as cheques witness drop in patronage – BoG report

The total value of mobile money transactions for the first six months of this year reached 140.2 billion cedis, up from the 104.6 billion cedis recorded in the same period in 2018.

Data released by the Bank of Ghana shows that this represents a 34 percent rise in the value of transactions recorded for the period under review.

Meanwhile, the patronage of cheques for the first half of this year witnessed a drop compared to the same period last year.

Between January and June this year, the total volume of mobile money transactions reached 915.8 million compared to the 655 million recorded in the same period last year.

This translates into an estimated forty percent growth.

Again, the total value of mobile money transactions increased by 34 percent to reach 140.2 billion cedis; up from the 104.6 billion cedis recorded in the same period in 2018.

Meanwhile, mobile money interoperability which allows customers to transfer money from one network to another seamlessly recorded a value of 217.6 million cedis as at June this year.

This measures higher, compared to the 213 million cedis recorded for such transactions between May and December last year.

However, for the period under review, the value of cheques cleared at various banks dropped by about 15 percent to 84.5 billion cedis, from the 99.3 billion cedis recorded the same period last year.

By this, an obvious indication is that transactions are shifting gradually from traditional banks to the platforms offered by telcos.