Accra: The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications and Digital Chamber of Ghana, Sylvia Owusu-Ankomah, has emphasized the need for mobile money agents to evolve into community financial hubs as Ghana enhances its digital financial ecosystem. Speaking at the MOMAG Agent Conference 2026 in Accra, Owusu-Ankomah highlighted the importance of moving beyond traditional cash-in and cash-out services to become trusted providers of community financial services.
According to Ghana Web, Owusu-Ankomah believes that mobile money agents are pivotal in Ghana's digital-finance landscape, serving as the crucial link between technology and Ghanaians, especially those accessing formal financial services for the first time. She stressed that trust is the core of Ghana's digital-finance narrative, surpassing applications, wallets, or technology platforms.
Owusu-Ankomah pointed out that the expansion of agents' roles requires robust support, including continuous professional training, enhanced business-management skills, reliable liquidity, fair commissions, affordable capital access, insurance, and improved physical security. She envisions agents facilitating services such as merchant payments, insurance, pensions, remittances, savings products, and government payments.
The Chamber CEO also expressed concerns about the rising threat of fraud, referencing the Bank of Ghana's 2025 Fraud Report, which documented 24,124 fraud cases within the payment-service-provider sector, up from 15,673 in 2024. The value at risk surged from approximately GHS19 million to GHS37 million during this period.
Owusu-Ankomah called for a comprehensive fraud-prevention framework involving banks, electronic money issuers, fintechs, telecommunications companies, the National Identification Authority, Cyber Security Authority, Ghana Police Service, GhIPSS, and the Bank of Ghana. She advocated for secure risk signal sharing, real-time fraud detection, rapid freezing of suspicious transactions, and coordinated investigations and recovery.
In her concluding remarks, Owusu-Ankomah urged mobile money agents to adopt professionalism, regulatory compliance, customer protection, and continuous learning. She emphasized that every agent should view themselves not just as transaction processors, but as custodians of trust and gateways to economic opportunity. Additionally, she encouraged regulators and industry players to engage more closely with mobile money agents and involve them in decisions impacting their operations.