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Mobile money accounts in Ghana hit 22 million as of the last quarter of 2017.

The figure is nearly half of the registered bank accounts, which currently stand at 11.6 million.

The Director, Payment Systems Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Settor Amediku, disclosed this when he contributed to a panel discussion on “Countering Mobile Money Fraud, Perspectives from Stakeholders”.

The discussion was on the sidelines of Ghana’s National Cyber Security Week in Accra yesterday.

He said fraudsters were now targeting mobile money users because a larger number of people were using the service compared to banking.

Dr Amediku noted that extensive education was the effective way of creating awareness of the activities of fraudsters.

Data

Data provided by the Telecoms Chamber to the Daily Graphic from January to June 2017 indicates that 9.5 million were active on the mobile money platform.

The balance on money being held by the bank partners who support the mobile money service by half year 2017, stood at GH¢1.8 billion.

This means mobile money has mobilised GH¢1.8 billion from the informal sector to the banks and formalised these funds for better use.

Problems

Mobile money fraud is on the increase but the Head of Mobile Money Services at MTN, Mr Eli Hini, has given an assurance that more was being done to curb the trend.

“We will also strengthen collaboration and partnership with the police for the arrest and prosecution of fraudsters,” Mr Hini gave an assurance.

He said agent monitoring and blacklisting to weed bad agents in order to ensure excellent customer service was also being pursued.

“Finally, we wish to assure our customers that the mobile money service remains safe, secure and reliable,” Mr Hini added.