Bank of Ghana extends minimum capital deadline for mobile money operators, 1 other to end of December

This means the Mobile Money Operators have up to the end of the year to meet the new minimum capital requirement of GH¢20million other the initial June 2020 deadline.

The Head of Payment Systems Department at the central bank, Dr Settor Amediku announced this at the maiden Mobile Technology for Development Event organised by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Financial Inclusion Forum Africa and the Office of the President.

According to him, the Bank of Ghana has also agreed that all financial technology (fintech) companies can convert 50 percent of their verifiable assert to cover 50 percent of their minimum capital requirement.

Adding that “The Central Bank has also extended the deadline for the Governance Framework and Infrastructure Requirement to December 2020.”

Background

In 2019, the BoG increased the minimum capital for Mobile Money companies from GH¢5 million to GH¢20 million; an increase of about 300 percent. Players in the sector were given nine months beginning September to meet the new requirements.

According to a statement from the BoG, “The emergence of new payment streams, institutions such as financial technology companies and the general acceptance of electronic money have necessitated 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 BoG said, “To operationalize Act 987, the Bank of Ghana hereby provides the minimum capital requirements, permissible activities and fees for all categories of payment service providers and financial technology companies."

“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,” the statement added.

The central bank grouped the various licences under the Payment System Providers (PSP) into five – PSP Electronic Money Issuer – GH¢20 million, PSP Scheme (Payments cards like Visa and MasterCards) – GH¢8 million, PSP Enhanced Licence (Payment Platforms like ExpressPay etc) – GH¢2 million, PSP Medium Licence (Sub agents for the payment platforms) – GH¢ 800, 000 and Standard Licence (startups fintech.) – No capital required