Ghanaians are using mobile money to remit funds more than cheques, report says

According to the central bank’s data aside from the in-house cheques, the total number of cheques cleared in the first three months of this year went down by nearly 121,000 compared to the same period last year, representing a more than 6.7% decline.

Also, the value of cheques transactions in the period under review also went down by almost $950 million (GH¢5 billion), which represents more than 10% decline in the transactions recorded same period last year.

The 2017 World Payments Report highlights the declining role of cheques as a means of payment given the rise of other efficient electronic payment methods.

Mobile money, on the other hand, has emerged as one of the most used payment means. The volume of transactions for the first quarter of 2019 grew at over 39% compared to the same period last year.

In terms of the value of all transactions conducted in the first quarter of this year, an amount of $12.6 billion (GH¢66.4 billion) was recorded, as against the $10 billion (GH¢52.4 billion) done the same period last year. This represents more than 26% growth.

Mobile money services continued to grow with registered mobile money accounts showing an increase of 16.8% which is 29.6 million as at the end of March 2019 compared to 25.3 million in the same period of 2018.

The number of active mobile money accounts have also increased by 13.13%. The number was 11.2 million in the first quarter of 2018 but it rose to 12.7 million in the first quarter of 2019.