The value of mobile money transactions in Ghana witnessed a significant dip in its rate of increase in 2021 when compared to the rate of increase in 2020.
This is according to data from the Bank of Ghana.
Whereas the value of mobile money transactions increased by over 100% from December 2019 to December 2020, the increase between December 2020 and December 2021 was only about 22%.
While the value of mobile money transactions more than doubled in 2020, from the GHĀ¢32.8 billion recorded in December 2019 to the GHĀ¢67.7 billion recorded in December 2020, transaction values only increased from GHĀ¢67.7 billion in December 2020 to GHĀ¢82.9 billion at the end of 2021.
A closer look at the data from the Bank of Ghana showed that while the number of active mobile money accounts increased by about 18% in all of 2020, from 14.5 million to 17.1 million, the number of accounts in all of 2021 increased by about 5%.
The number of active agents increased by about 45% in 2020 but saw the rate of increase slow down by about 35%.
The number of mobile money transactions also saw a reduction in the period under review. Whereas 200 million transactions were recorded at the end of December 2019, the number increased to 301 million by the end of December 2020, representing a growth of about 50%. The rate of increase slowed to about 33% by the end of December 2021, when the number of transactions rose to 401 million from the 301 million recorded at the end of December 2020.
The trend of a slowdown in the rate of increase was also recorded with Mobile Money interoperability.
Whereas the total value of interoperability transactions ended 2019 at GHĀ¢132 million, the figure rose to over GHĀ¢1.1 billion by the end of 2020, representing a growth of over 740%.
The increase in 2021 was, however, about 120%, rising from about GHĀ¢1.1 billion at the end of 2020 to about GHĀ¢2.4 billion.