MobileMoney Fintech Limited (MMFL) has assured customers that funds in mobile money wallets are protected through regulated trust accounts maintained with partner banks.
The company said electronic money used in mobile money transactions was fully backed by cash held in trust accounts supervised by the Bank of Ghana.
Mr Godwin Kwami Tamakloe, Chief Regulatory, Risk and Compliance Officer of MMFL, gave the assurance at the JoyNews Digital Economy Forum in Accra.
It was held on the theme: “The Trust Crisis: Why Fraud is Holding Back Ghana’s Digital Economy.”
Mr Tamakloe said electronic money was not held directly by Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMIs) or fintech companies but by partner banks under the Bank of Ghana’s regulatory framework.
“The electronic money generated is not held by the Payment Service Providers or dedicated electronic money issuers like us. They all go to the bank,” he stated.
Mr Tamakloe said misconceptions about the safety of mobile money balances largely resulted from limited public understanding of how the mobile money ecosystem operated.
He said the arrangement ensured that customers’ funds remained protected irrespective of the digital platform through which transactions were conducted.
Mr Tamakloe said customers’ funds remained secure even when a mobile money platform experienced technical challenges or service interruptions because the underlying cash was held within the banking system.
“Mobile money is just the channel. The Payment Service Providers are simply the channels through which customers access their funds,” he said.
Mr Tamakloe said banks, fintech companies and payment service providers formed an interconnected financial ecosystem supported by a regulatory framework designed to safeguard customer funds and maintain confidence in digital financial services.
Other participants at the forum underscored the need for greater collaboration to combat fraud and strengthen consumer protection.
Mr John Awuah, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Banks, said collaboration between banks and fintech companies had become increasingly important as financial services continued to expand through digital platforms.
Mr Stephen Cudjoe-Seshie, Deputy Director-General for Technical Operations at the Cyber Security Authority, called for enhanced cybersecurity awareness and closer cooperation among regulators, financial institutions and technology firms in response to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Professor Godfred Bokpin of the University of Ghana Business School described trust as fundamental to digital financial inclusion and cautioned that persistent fraud could undermine Ghana’s digital transformation if consumers lost confidence in digital financial services.