"It is now mandatory for foreign institutions that want to enter into the electronic money space to be at least 30 per cent Ghanaian owned". This revelation was made known by Dr Settor Amediku, Director and Head of Payment Systems Department of the Bank of Ghana at the 5th “Today Annual Lecture” organised in Accra on Thursday, August 23, 2018.

 

Dr Amediku said that one area of major concern to the central bank is cyber security. He said the threat of cyber security has resulted in the creation of a Cyber Security Bill with various staff being trained to ensure they are equipped in handling the threat. The Bill will also ensure that banks are cyber compliant.

 

He said  that the bill will also set stringent conditions for Mobile Money agents to operate under. He assured Ghanaians that current changes in the banking sector is no cause for alarm.

 

"In 2002, two state banks were liquidated and the oppourtunity was not given to depositors to operate. However, under this arrangement, depositors can operate. What we are doing is that we want people to have trust in the financial system", he said.

 

Dr Amediku added that the national card registration will take care of some of the issues affecting Mobile Money Fraud.

 

Speaking on the topic "Managing the risk of fraud in mobile money", Mr Yaw Dabanka, E-Channels Support Manager of the National Investment Bank noted that the common scenarios for mobile money fraud were scam credit notifications, scam life saving calls, false promo and loyalty prizes, goods delivery scams, unauthorised SIM swap and PIN code reset.

 

He said that factors that enhance mobile money fraud are the incentives of anonymity stemming from the use of fake identity cards for registration as well as the functionality of some unregistered SIM cards. He also said the surge in phone subscribers and mobile money users has given the oppourtunity for scammers to reach more people. Inadequate educational awareness creation among mobile money users especially on how to protect their data  makes people susceptible to scams, he added.

 

Dr Dabanka urged users not to save pin codes and passwords on their phones especially with vivid descriptions. Other factors, he noted, also included under reporting fraudulent activities resulting in little attention being paid to it as well as little, or, no due diligence performed on merchants before signing them on.

 

He, however, said that Bank of Ghana's directive to register merchants will allow for these checks. Mr Dabanka said that to manage these risks, there must be a building of comprehensive and efficient Identification system, reporting of all forms of actual or attempted fraud, increase in fraud awareness campaigns and ensuring that the venture becomes expensive for fraudsters to engage in.

 

Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Director of Groupe Nduom,described mobile money as an important area of our lives. He lauded MTN for popularising mobile money in Ghana saying that they have come to dominate the service.

 

He added that Ghana needs to find a way to let Ghanaians enter the industry especially through the use of technology. This he said will allow Ghanaians to use regulatory means to ensure they have significant participation and urged patronage of Made in Ghana products and services.

 

Dr Nduom  wished that regulators would have more resources and technology they can use to do regular work so they can help to strengthen banks. He hoped that mobile money will become very popular for payments and urged the elimination of cash usage for transactions.

 

The Chairperson for the lecture, Mr Sylvester Mensah, a former NHIA boss said that this discussion had come at a time when Ghana was facing one of the worst crisis in the banking industry. He described it as a crisis of poor regulatory frameworks and not a crisis of banks collapsing.

 

"Our banking industry is one of the most profitable with available data indicating that total profit for 2017 (profit after tax) was GHC 2 billion. We have an industry dominated by non-Ghanaian banks and they appropriate a significant portion of the GHC2 billion. The seven banks that have collapsed are all indigenous banks". 

 

He said that the Ghanaian economy is being handed over to foreigners which is a danger.

 

Mr Godwin Kwami Tamakloe, Senior Manager at MTN who spoke on the topic: "The Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile Money in Ghana" said that the dawn of new digital payments resulted from the customers’ desire for secure, easy and faster channels of banking as well as the increase in the use of mobile phones as compared to bank accounts and also unsatisfied business and customer needs.

 

Over the years, there has been a growth of banks on the Mobile Money platform from nine in 2008 to seventeen as at 2018 with an increase in subscribers from 1.7 million to 11.6 million.

 

The impact of Mobile Money he said can be seen in the creation of jobs with about 140,000 agent points and about 5000 on the field who are into field activation and are paid at the end of each month.

 

It has also enabled the upsurge of related industries such as FinTech (Financial Technology), micro-insurance, reduction in revenue leakages and support of bank capitalization and liquidity.

 

The value proposition has allowed for the cheap cost and ease of transaction and helped to ease and lower costs for some social intervention programs such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and the World Food Program (WFP).

 

Mr Samuel Ampah , General Manager for Sales and Marketing, GN Money, in his lecture on "Examining the Level of Preference for Mobile Money as Compared to Traditional Bank Transactions" said mobile money is the future of banking. He said the service now allows people to do more by providing speed and convenience.  It has also reduced travelling costs and time wasted in going to banks to withdraw small sums of money. He said mobile money is going to offer  oppourtunities for banks because people will deposit more.

 

"In a nutshell, payments cannot be separated from digitization. We must embrace mobile money and take advantage of these oppourtunities. The idea that it is a telecom business must be dispelled and all financial institutions should be allowed to participate" he said.

 

He noted that though the introduction of technology may result in job loses, innovation will allow for the creation of oppourtunities for people. The lecture is an annual event which began 5 years ago and which gives the platform for experts to offer advice on selected topics and propose solutions.

 

The lecture was attended by managers of various institutions,representatives from Gold Coast Security, GN bank, Trade Union Congress, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the general public and the media.