Mobile money transactions nearly GH¢ 90 billion for first half of 2021

The value of Mobile Money (MoMo) transactions for the first half of 2021 increased to GH¢89.1 billion from the GH¢45.3 billion recorded within the same period in 2020.

This implies that MoMo transactions have increased by 97% and in monetary terms, GH¢43.8 billion in a year, compared with data from June 2020.

This was contained in the Bank of Ghana (BoG) July 2021 Summary of Economic and Financial Data report.

According to the report, mobile money transactions grew by GH¢22 billion between January and June. From January to June 2021, MoMo transactions have seen a consistent increase.

At the end of January, the transactions stood at GH¢67.1 billion, but increased to GH¢67.9 billion in February, and further increased to GH¢82.3 billion in March 2021.

In April, the volume of transactions was GH¢83.8billion. This increased to GH¢ 86.5 billion in May, before another increase to GH¢89.1 billion by the end of the first six months of 2021.

The total number of transactions was 338 million at the end of June 2021, an increase of 112 million and nearly 50% on the 226 million recorded for the same period in 2020.

Industry watchers attribute this significant increase, largely, to mobile money interoperability.

Interoperability makes it possible for clients to transfer money to other networks as part of the Central Bank’s Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS).

Indeed, data from the BoG data showed that at the end of the first six months of the year, the mobile money interoperability transactions surged greatly to GH¢1.64 billion.

This shows a significant increase of more than five times the amount recorded in the first half of 2020, which was GH¢ 321 million.

It is also observed that for the last four months in the first half of 2021, the transactions reached more than a billion each month.

READ ALSO: MoMo Transactions Record Over 160% Increase

For the first time in the first half of the year, GH¢1.33 billion was recorded in March, from the GH¢990.7 million in February 2021.

The figure increased to GH¢ 1.36 billion in April, then to GH¢1.52 billion in May, before closing the first half of the month with GH¢1.64 billion.

The recorded number of mobile money interoperability transactions for the first half of 2021 stood at 10.3 million, an increase of 4.6 million transactions from the January figure of 5.7 million transactions.

According to the BoG, the registered mobile money accounts increased by 4.3 million for the period under review, with mobile money accounts amounting to 44.3 million at the end of the first half of the year.

Active mobile money accounts were 18.3 million of the total number of registered accounts.