By
Laudia Sawer
Tema, Oct 13, GNA – The Mobile Money Agents
Association of Ghana (MMAAG) is asking their respective telecommunication
companies on the mobile money platform to insure them.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Friday,
the executive members of MMAAG, said the mobile money business was a risky one
and therefore the need for the formulation and implementation of an insurance
policy to cushion merchants.
They noted that the upsurge of armed robbery
attacks on merchants had put fear into majority of their 95,000 members across
the country as there were no protection for their lives and operations.
According to them, they had become a target of
robbery and fraud.
They added that it was their wish to work deep
into the night to enable the public have access to money during emergencies but
the absence of an insurance policy to cover them was preventing most of the
members from doing so.
They suggested that premiums for the insurance
could be shared among the telecom operators and the mobile money agents, since
the operators provided the system for the transactions while they provided the
cash for the business.
Touching on other issues, they appealed to
them to make available their withholding tax certificates to them after
deducting the five per cent and filing with the Ghana Revenue Authority.
They observed that the current practice of the
telecommunication companies deducting them while not showing them any proof of
filing was not a best practice.
The MMAAG executives further reminded the
companies that, agents were major stakeholders in the business therefore the
need for them to be consulted in the setting of commission rates, deductions,
among other decisions covering the mobile money business.
According to them, even though the mobile
money business was flourishing, and the telecommunication companies were making
a lot of profits from the transactions, the agents who provided the cash for
the transactions were not cashing in as they deserved as they had no say on how
the companies set their commissions, penalties, among others.
GNA