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Claim: Former Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, claims that Ghana is the only country in Africa to deliver mobile money interoperability. He also notes that the number of mobile money agents in the country has increased from 107,000 to 900,000.
Verdict: Misleading! It is not true that Ghana is the only African country with mobile money interoperability. Additionally, using cumulative data from mobile money agents does not tell the whole story of the industry’s current state.
Full Text
Former Vice President and New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, says his track record uniquely positions him to deliver world-class progress if elected flagbearer of the party and as President of Ghana.
Bawumia insists that his tenure as Vice-President saw the country become a continental leader in digital innovation and public service transformation.
Highlighting some digital interventions implemented during his time in office, the NPP flagbearer hopeful stated that he was committed to leveraging technology to improve lives if given the nod.
“Before, inter-network mobile money transfers were impossible. You could also not transfer money from your bank account to your mobile money, and vice versa. We delivered mobile money interoperability, which no African country has done,” Bawumia said to party delegates.
According to Bawumia, Mobile money interoperability has boosted Ghana’s mobile money industry.
“Before, there were 8 million Ghanaians who had mobile money accounts; today, it is 24 million. The number of active mobile money agents has also increased from 107,000 to 900,000,” he added.
The former Vice-President made these claims during an interaction with party delegates in Techiman North and South as part of his campaign activities ahead of the NPP’s January 31 primaries. These claims were made initially in Akan.
A clip with Bawumia making the claim has been posted on X and YouTube. Dubawa decided to fact-check this claim due to the potential for it to be misleading.
Verification
This is not the first time Bawumia has claimed that Ghana is the only African country to have delivered mobile money interoperability. When he made the same claim in August 2020, DUBAWA Ghana investigated and found it to be false.
In the report, which can be read here, DUBAWA Ghana referenced a 2014 article published by The East African, saying that Tanzania was the first on the continent to implement the interoperability system.
The DUBAWA Ghana report also cited a June 2020 GSMA report, which concluded that Ghana was not the only African country to implement mobile money interoperability.
Page 10 of the GSMA June 2020 report shows several African countries with Mobile Money interoperability.
On the claim of the number of mobile money agents, we relied on data from the Bank of Ghana for 2016 (pages 25 & 26) and 2024 (page 5) and found the following:
| 2016 (Registered) | 2016 (Active) | 2024 (Registered) | 2024 (Active) | |
| Mobile Money Accounts | 19,735,098 | 8,313,283 | 73.0m | 23.5m |
| Mobile Money Agents | 136,769 | 107,415 | 883,000 | 404,000 |
Source: Bank of Ghana
In the case of mobile money agents, Bawumia compared the number of active agents in 2016 to the number of registered agents in 2024. This comparison may be misleading, as the number of registered agents is cumulative and does not reflect the current number of active agents in business.
Conclusion
It is not true that Ghana is the only African country with mobile money interoperability. At least there are Tanzania, Uganda, and a host of other countries with the system. Also, it is misleading to suggest that there are 900,000 mobile money agents in the country. This number reflects the cumulative number of those who have ever registered to operate and does not account for those who are no longer operating as mobile money agents.
