The total volume of mobile money transactions increased also to 6.80 billion in 2023, representing a 35.0 per cent growth on the volume recorded in 2022.

According to the Central Bank, the growth in both volume and value was mainly driven by increased number of active mobile money users, which stood at 65.6m in 2023, while active agents grew by 21 per cent to 608,856.

The Central Bank observed that the top five transactions performed by users, according to value, were cash-in, cash-out, bank-to-wallet, wallet-to-bank and person-to-person transactions.

In a related development, a total of 15.23 million loans (24 per cent increase) were disbursed at a value of GHS7.59 billion (37 per cent growth), respectively by Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMIs).

On a monthly basis, an average of 1.27 million loans valued at GHS632 million were disbursed, the Bank reported. The digital financial ecosystem saw a total of 181 licence applications, and product authorisation requests by the Bank of Ghana in 2023, out of which seven licence applications and 26 product authorisations were approved.

The credit products and services were underwritten by licensed banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) to their customers, in line with Section 30 (1)(h) of the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987).

According to the Central Bank, performance of the SDIs and Other Licensed Institutions improved in 2023, despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, with deposits as the major source of funding for the sub-sector.

It was also observed that the combined assets of SDIs and Other Licensed Institutions stood at GHS22.63 billion at end-December 2023, compared with GHS18.64 billion at end-December 2022.