Ahead of the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), data from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) indicates that the balance on mobile money (MOMO) transactions has fallen to GH¢9.4 billion in January 2022 from GH¢9.7 billion in December 2021.
The central bank’s data further revealed that the amount of money sent and received on phone-based platforms fell from GH¢82.9 billion in December 2021 to GH¢76.2 billion in January, the lowest since August last year.
“The decline between January and December was the heftiest over the past five months.”
The latest development has raised massive concerns about the new tax’s ability to rake in the anticipated revenue.
According to the Summary of Economic and Financial data (March 2022) published by the Bank of Ghana, the mobile money platform which is the largest payment system network in the country – seen as the main driver of financial inclusion – saw its transaction value decline to GH¢76.2billion in January 2021 from the GH¢86.1billion recorded in November 2021 (the very month the E-levy was announced), indicating a drop of GH¢9.9billion. The platform has never seen such a colossal decline in value over the space of any two months within a year ever since it was introduced.
The data showed the total number of transactions also went down as it saw a 24 million decline in January 2022 from November 2021.
The number of active agents also saw a decline of 7,000 within the same period, while active mobile money accounts also decreased by 600,000 in the period under discussion.
Source: Pulse.com.gh