Mobile money charges are not drawbacks to financial inclusion – Expert

Kweku Tetteh an expert with the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) says the current mobile money charges are not drawbacks to financial inclusion in the country.

According to him, the charges has the potentials of hindering the over 7 million Ghanaians excluded from all forms of financial activities if the system is not regulated.

“At the moment the charges are reasonable but it’s an area that needs to be supervised so outrageous charges are not charged to consumers by the central bank” adding that “customers can report service providers to the financial ombudsman which is resident at the central bank”.

According to Mr Tetteh surveys carried out revealed that cost was not part of the major drawback to financial inclusion but rather factors like people not having enough money to run the services and availability of devices like phones to run the services.

The charges, he said, could be a problem but people need to be educated on the importance of having a cashless system.

“I believe at the moment, there need to be more education on the need to have a seamless system, because we are bringing on board a set of people who were not previously exposed to financial services, we need to educate them well to appreciate the advantages that it brings and benefits that they get out of it and I am sure they will appreciate it” he said.

Mr. Tetteh was speaking at the second edition of AccraSpeaks, a forum that discusses topical issues in the country.

The forum was themed “Achieving financial inclusion technology: are mobile money charges a drawback to inclusions?”

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