Mobile Money operators to petition IGP over spate of robberies on their members

The Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana has send a strong indication that it will petition the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to help in combating armed robbery on their members.

Mobile Money business centers have become targets for armed robbers due to the high number of people who have switched from seeking some financial services from banks to mobile money agents, resulting in the need for agents to handle huge sum of cash for their daily business.

Speaking to host of the 3FMSunrise Morning Show, Alfred Ocansey, general secretary of the association, Evans Otumfuo, called on government to come to their aid to protect their members from any further attacks.

“We have in a way tried to engage the police, we have sent them a letter close to 4 month now requesting to meet them unfortunately we have not received any feedback as yet. “It is unfortunate but we are hoping that we will be called for the meeting especially looking at what has been happening to our members as it does appear that our fate is left to us now,” he said.

He further revealed that more than 200 cases of attacks have been recorded in the first quarter on their members.

“It is time for the government to come in since whatever we are doing government is in some way gaining revenue from us, we can’t face this battle all alone and it is time for the government to take stringent measures to curtail this menace being meted out to mobile money agents,” he added.

But Reacting to the comments by the General Secretary of the association, former head of legal of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and private legal practitioner, Francis Baah advised the association to press on beyond writing to the police for protection to meeting the police leadership.

The 2017 Global Findex database indicated that access to formal financial rose from 41% of adults in 2014 to 58% in 2017 and this was largely attributed to mobile money accounts.

This identified the country as the fastest –growing mobile money market in Africa at the time.

According to the Bank of Ghana, as of December 2020, there were some 38.5 million registered accounts with 17.5 million active mobile money accounts in Ghana.