The Mobile Money Advocacy Group Ghana (MoMAG) is hopeful that the elimination of the e-levy will greatly improve their company’s operations.
Minister-Designate for Finance During his most recent vetting, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson declared that the government’s first budget would eliminate the E-levy.
MoMAG President Edward Ofori Agyemang told Citi Business News during the association’s new executive induction ceremony that removing the e-levy would encourage deposits from clients that had previously decreased because of the levy.
“Now that the government has said it is going to abolish it[e-levy], it is a happy moment for us and it is going to enhance our business. When there wasn’t E-levy, people used to come to the agents to deposit money and they will send it through their wallet . But when they introduced E-levy, when people come they say, we the agents should send the money straight because they want to avoid E-levy
“We are fighting that the government should take off the E-levy and we thank God the government is going to take off E-levy and it will help us. We also encourage more consumers to deposit money on their wallet, ”he added.
Both citizens and businesses strongly objected to the E-levy, which was implemented as a tax on electronic financial transactions.
It was thought to discourage the use of digital payment methods, particularly among the unbanked who were largely dependent on mobile money services.
Kwame Oppong, the Central Bank’s Director of Fintech and Innovation, emphasized the importance of mobile money services in promoting financial inclusion and increasing underprivileged populations’ access to financial services.
“The lessons that I learnt from her [Mrs Eli Ohene Adu] all the way back to even those who even dreamt of this happening in Ghana and those who have walked this journey is that we collaborate and make sure we can carefully build a regulatory framework that ensures that as a Central Bank, no matter what we do a regulator is a regulator. We have to protect individuals and the sector first then we also have to figure out within that equation how we help you grow,” he said.
