Mercy360 Blog of Tuesday, 17 December 2024
Source: Mercy Mensah
TapTap Send is advocating for a more collaborative approach between Ghanaian regulators and money transfer operators to facilitate remittances. This comes after the company faced a one-month suspension by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) due to an alleged violation of banking and forex laws concerning a cedi-based wallet for Ghanaians abroad. The suspension resulted in an estimated US$100 million loss in remittances during November 2024 .
According to Daryl Mawutor Abraham, TapTap Send's Head of Africa, the wallet was exclusively for Ghanaians living abroad to hold cedis for transfers back home. He emphasized that proactive engagement with the BoG could have prevented the sanctions and the subsequent disruption of vital remittance flows .
Abraham also criticized Ghana's requirement for new Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) to possess three years of operational experience, deeming it an outlier and a hindrance to innovation. He highlighted the substantial contribution of remittances to the Ghanaian economy, citing figures of US$5 billion annually, with TapTap Send alone facilitating over US$1.5 billion .
To regain customer trust, TapTap Send has launched initiatives such as the TapTap Sanbra Promo, offering customers in the diaspora chances to win return tickets and cash prizes for sending money. The company has also introduced a charity initiative to match up to GHS1 million per qualifying Ghanaian charity for every dollar sent .