The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has extended the deadline to meet the GH₵20 milliom new minimum capital requirement for payments system providers and mobile money operators in the country to end of December, 2020.
Again, the BoG has also agreed to allow financial technology (Fintech) firms to convert 50 per cent of their verifiable assets to cover half of their minimum capital requirements.
These were disclosed by the Head of Payment Systems
Department at the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Settor Amediku, at the inaugural edition
of the Mobile Technology for Development Conference held in Accra.
The event was organised by the Ghana Chamber of Telecoms and the Financial Inclusion Forum Africa.
The central bank initially gave the Mobile Money Operators a June 2020 deadline to meet the GH₵20 million new minimum capital requirement, but the date has been reviewed to December 2020.
Background
In September last year, the BoG increased the ₵20 million
new minimum capital requirements for payment service providers from an initial
amount of ₵5 million.
In a press statement release at the time, the BoG said the
influx of payments service providers in Ghana calls for some regulations to
supervise their operations.
“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”, he said.
The said statement further adds that “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.”
Per the Act, 2019 (Act 987), all mobile money operators are
required to set up a subsidiary and seek approval from the Bank of Ghana.
“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 Breakdown – Payment Platforms
The Payment System Providers (PSP) have been into five licensing categories with each having a stated capital requirement to meet.
They are the PSP Electronic Money Issuer-GH¢20 million, PSP
Scheme (for payments cards like Visa and MasterCards)–GH¢8 million, PSP
Enhanced Licence (for payment Platforms like ExpressPay etc)–GH¢2 million.
The rest are PSP Medium Licence (Sub agents for the payment
platforms) – GH¢ 800, 000 and Standard Licence (startups fintechs.) – No
capital required.
Reduce cash
transactions
The move to regularise the operations of payment system service providers is part of the BoG’s efforts to reduce physical cash transactions in the country.
It is also geared towards reducing cost of doing business
while improvimg revenue collections in the country.
The Bank of Ghana has set 2024 as a deadline for the country
to move towards an era of cashless society.
The government has also said it would start electronic payments for its services from June this year. This has been influenced by mobile number interoperability.
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Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
