Following an emergency meeting held on Friday, June 25, the Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana (MMAG) have announced an increase in Mobile money cash-out service beginning Thursday, July 1.
Increase in MoMo Cash-out charges
According to the association, the increase in cash-out service is as a result of a directive by the government to the telecom companies to deduct a 10% tax from the cash-out service of MoMo agents. This means that MoMo agents will be paying a total of 20% tax on monthly basis. The association says they “cannot cope with this directive given to the Telcos by the government to deduct 10% extra from our cash-out services wallet.”
“In total, on each network, every Agent will be paying 20% tax on monthly basis. Initially, Agents pay 5% on cash-in service wallets, but it was secretly increased to 10% without our knowledge. We feel this is a gross disregard to procedures,” the Association said.
Given the upcoming increment, the association is calling on all mobile money customers to bear with them.
“To the general public, please take note of these new changes to mobile money service charges taking effect from 1st July 2021. The same day the 10% tax imposition by the government on our cash-out service charge begins. We are pleading with you to comply with our members in their various shops”, the association said.
“This is never our wish but we don’t have a choice. The financial commitments are too much and absorbing this leaves us with nothing at the end of the day”, the association further said.
Besides the taxes, there are the high cost of utilities, the acquisition of operating permits, and payment of social security for employees. The association said it was also faced with numerous challenges such as armed robbery attacks and fraudulent activities which nearly collapsed their businesses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No business can survive in such an environment…There is no business in Ghana that is made to pay nine different taxes, only a small business like MoMo aside our operational cost,” said the association.
The new MoMo cash-out service charges are below
