As part of his engagements with various stakeholder groups, NDC flagbearer John Dramani Mahama met with fintech industry leaders in Accra on Friday, March 15, 2024.
The engagement initially saw a close-door session between the former president and fintech operators, after which the media was briefed on the proceedings.
Answering questions that were asked of him, the former president, John Dramani Mahama, said that the 1.5% levy that is charged on mobile money transactions is defeating the purpose for which it was created.
He argued that the majority of Ghanaians would prefer to return to the cash system because of the 1.5% Electronic Transaction Levy and all the additional fees associated with financial transactions.
“Already the taxies on purchases are so high, and so if you are going to a supermarket and you have to, if you are using cash, you pay all those COVID levy and whatever levy whatever levy, and then because you are using a mobile money payment platform, you pay another 1.5 percent in addition to all the payments you have already made. It defeats the purpose; it makes all of us go back into the cash economy,” Mr. Mahama said.
He also observed that most people, instead of paying for purchases using digital payment systems such as Momo accounts, now prefer to first cash out and pay with cash instead.
“It is not really achieving what is meant to be achieved because most people are doing cash out and then using cash to pay for whatever they want to pay in order to avoid the 1.5 levy on electronic transactions,” he added.
The former president further asserted that policies should be instruments that nurture the growth of sectors, not like a police officer who is waiting to arrest one and prosecute them.
He revealed that his party did all that it could to stop the passage of the E-levy but was won over by the ruling administration due to the latter’s greater representation in Parliament.
Mr. Mahama additionally intimated that if it assumes power in 2025, the NDC will do a forensic audit of the whole banking clean-up exercise and help restore the licences of banks that were unjustly closed down, since he believes the exercise negatively disrupted the fintech space.
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