President of the Mobile Money Advocacy Group Ghana (MOMAG), Maame Nyarkoa Addo has admonished mobile money service providers to embrace technology to add value to their businesses.

“We are in a digitised era now so let us ensure we are not left behind in this age of technology. Seek more skills to improve your knowledge in Information Technology and other forms of digitisation which can help improve the services you render to the public,” she added.

Maame Nyarkoa gave the advice at the maiden edition of the Mobile Money Conference held at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) yesterday on the theme “Handling personal finance and business finance in the mobile money merchants, agents and agency banking ecosystem.”

The conference was organised by the UGBS in collaboration with MOMAG.

It afforded participants the opportunity of gaining knowledge in financial literacy, and also the need for members to know the enormous advantages of technology when applied to their businesses.

Maame Nyarkoa advised members of MOMAG to prioritise financial literacy in order to stand out among competitors, adding that they could even pass on valuable information they had unto their clients to boost their confidence.

“You must take financial literacy seriously, especially because of the field you have chosen. You cannot be a good mobile money agent if you are not an individual who is serious about financial literacy because such knowledge equips you with the necessary skills to manage money effectively,” she added.

Dr Benjamin Amoah, Senior Lecturer, Department of Finance, UGBS in his address underscored the need for the separation of one’s personal finance from business finance.

Explaining, he noted that separating one’s personal and business finances makes business owners treat their businesses like an independent entity while safeguarding their personal finances.

This, he said, would make it easy to track business cash flow.

Touching on the implementation of the Electronic levy, Mr Amoah indicated that mobile money agents across the country needed more education on the details of the E-Levy.

On his part, a patron of MOMAG, Mr Joseph Smith-Acquah, urged participants to take advantage of everything they learned at the conference, adding that the information shared at the conference was valuable and had the tendency of shaping the lives and businesses of the participants.

He also expressed gratitude to the speakers and organisers of the programme for the support.

Vigilance, he said, must be a trait mobile money operators must not take lightly to protect themselves and their businesses.

He also urged MOMAG members to pay their dues as expected of them “because no organisation can thrive without dues.”

The occasion was graced by representatives from the Fidelity Bank and the Ghana Association of Bankers.