<<Print>>

A former Deputy Minister for Finance, Mona Quartey, has given thumbs up to the deal struck by the Bank of Ghana and Sibton Switch to do cash flow monitoring in the interconnect mobile money transactions but says the Central Bank must come out publicly to address the concerns of some stakeholders.

According to the former Deputy Finance Minister, she has confidence that BOG entered into the agreement in the interest of the State and consumers but it was rather unfortunate that some red flags had been raised after the agreement had been signed.

Speaking on Joy FM’s News Analysis programme, NEWSFILE last Saturday, although she touted the enormous benefits of the agreement, especially to subscribers, Madam Quartey urged the Bank of Ghana “come public with full disclosure to cool tempers”.

She said even though no money is being spent on the project, the benefits to the nation, especially the consuming masses and the state is enormous.

The decision by the Bank Of Ghana enter into that agreement has elicited some heat from some stakeholders.

A Digital Services Finance Consultant, Kwame Oppong who also spoke on the program via telephone, described as untrue suggestions that the Bank of Ghana is committing an amount of GHC 4.6billion of public funds into the proposed switch to interconnect mobile money transactions.

He explained that on the contrary, the said amount is to be provided by the private operator of the switch which is supposed to go into the digital infrastructure to be used for the interoperability.

Mr Oppong said longterm operational considerations might have influenced the company’s decision to invest that quantum of money on the interface.

He said the company might have been compelled to consider operational cost over a period of time as against a simple set-up. “ It might be the case that the BOG wanted a broader interoperability, one that will lower costs and making more people financially inclusive”, he said.

He also described as false the notion that Sibton Switch will be handling public funds. “ They will not handle or be given public funds in any way. They will only monitor cashflows”, the Consultant explained and that position was corroborated by former Deputy Finance Minister, Mona Quartey

According to some experts, perhaps the better part of this consumer benefit argument also is the fact that consumers get to pay less under the interoperability arrangement. This is due to the way things occur in the central switch system; the more people (consumers, banks and telecommunication firms) are added, the less the consumer pays because the cost is then spread among all users.

It is therefore not true that with the coming into being of the interoperability concept, consumers will pay more. May be a simple demonstration will suffice. So for instance, instead of paying GHC 20 for sending GHC 2,000 as it is currently, the figure will reduce to GHC 17.5; GHC 7.5 for GHC 1,000 instead of GHC 10; GHC 3.50 for GHC 500 instead of GHC 5; GHC 1.75 for GHC 200 instead of GHC 2.00 and GHC 0.75 for GHC 100 instead of GHC 1.00. this is how one stands to gain when the interoperability becomes operational.

In terms of safety, he explained, even though the telecommunication companies in Ghana have done “pretty well over the years, one cannot ignore security issues resulting in common allegations of hacking, stolen passwords and missing funds, poor network among others”.

“The presence of a third party providing inter-network operability will ensure there is greater degree or an improved reliability within the entire platform. Additionally, the sophisticated nature of the switch to be provided by Sibton Switch will guarantee a highly robust system with its attendant system integrity. That way, the consumer is assured of a hitch-free service any time of day, anytime of the year” the expert added.

Another benefit to the consumer exist in the countries making up the West Africa Economic Monetary Union (WAEMU) and countries like Congo DR, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. In these countries, the consumer can transfer funds from an E-money and/or deposit account to another account using a mobile device.

The consumer can do transfers including transferring e-money to other e-money, e-money to bank accounts or bank accounts to E-money, bank account to another bank account and all that is possible due to the presence of a third party to carry out an interoperability switch, according to the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI).

So whereas under the current status quo, transactions are allowed only among users of same network, consumers will be in a position to send money irrespective of the recipient’s telecommunication network. This is also because instead of the current arrangement of peer-to-peer switching, a central or one common national switch would have assumed control of the interconnecting all the operators.