The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced GHS20 million as the minimum capital required for operating a mobile money company in the country.

The directive comes on the back of the enactment of the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987), to provide the legal and regulatory framework for the orderly development of the payment system.

The central bank, in a statement, said an Electronic Money Issuer needs a minimum of GHS20 million to get a licence to begin operation.

An Electronic Money Issuer can recruit and manage agents, create and manage a wallet, can engage in wallet-based domestic money transfers, including transfers to and from bank accounts, cash-in and cash-out transactions, investment, savings, credit products only in partnership with banks, insurance and pension products, only with authorised insurance and pension companies.

The BoG’s statement signed by the Secretary to the Governor, Mrs Frances Van-Hein Sackey, said the Bank of Ghana, in furtherance of its objective of fostering financial innovation, has taken into consideration the size, nature and characteristics of each financial technology company in prescribing the required minimum capital, governance and systems requirements.

Existing Mobile Money operators have nine months to meet the new capital requirement. New operators, on the other hand, will be required to meet the new minimum capital requirement before operations.

The move comes on the back of an increase in the value of transactions on the Mobile Money platform. Banks that also want to do mobile money must set up a separate subsidiary to do the electronic transactions and have to be capitalised as a guarantee to ensure that they are fit and proper to carry on any transaction of electronic money.