MobileMoney Fintech Limited (MMFL) has assured customers that funds held in their mobile money wallets are secure because they are fully backed by cash deposited in regulated trust accounts with partner banks under the supervision of the Bank of Ghana.
Mr Godwin Kwami Tamakloe, Chief Regulatory, Risk and Compliance Officer of MMFL, said Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMIs) and payment service providers did not hold customers’ funds directly, explaining that the underlying cash was maintained in regulated bank trust accounts.
He gave the assurance at the JoyNews Digital Economy Forum in Accra, held on the theme: “The Trust Crisis: Why Fraud is Holding Back Ghana’s Digital Economy.”
The forum brought together regulators, banks, fintech firms and cybersecurity experts to discuss strategies for strengthening public confidence in Ghana’s digital financial services ecosystem.
Mr Tamakloe said public concerns about the safety of mobile money balances were largely due to limited understanding of how the mobile money system operates.
He explained that while customers use mobile money platforms to access and transfer funds, the electronic money created for transactions is fully matched by physical cash held in trust accounts with partner banks in line with Bank of Ghana regulations.
“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 said.
He noted that the arrangement protects customer funds even if a mobile money platform experiences technical difficulties or service interruptions because the underlying funds remain in the banking system.
“Mobile money is just the channel. The Payment Service Providers are simply the channels through which customers access their funds,” Mr Tamakloe added.
He said banks, fintech companies and payment service providers operated within an integrated financial ecosystem governed by regulations designed to safeguard customer funds and sustain public confidence in digital financial services.
Other speakers at the forum stressed the need for stronger collaboration among industry players to combat fraud and enhance consumer protection.
Mr John Awuah, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Banks, said the growing use of digital platforms by commercial banks made collaboration between banks and fintech companies critical to tackling fraud.
Mr Stephen Cudjoe-Seshie, Deputy Director-General for Technical Operations at the Cyber Security Authority, called for greater cybersecurity awareness and closer cooperation among regulators, financial institutions and technology firms to counter increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Professor Godfred Bokpin of the University of Ghana Business School described trust as fundamental to digital financial inclusion, warning that persistent fraud could undermine Ghana’s digital transformation agenda if consumers lost confidence in digital financial services.
