In May 2018, Ghana became the first country in Africa to launch a game-changing digital payment system - mobile money interoperability, which allowed seamless payments; first between all mobile money networks and then, between mobile money networks and bank accounts.

However, before that, Ghana operated a fragmented payment system, which did now allow direct financial transactions between one mobile network and the other without a token, and also between mobile networks and bank accounts.

But all that changed in May, 2018, when then Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, launched Ghana's Mobile Money Interoperability, to revolutionise the nation's mobile money system.

Within the first five days of the launch, the first phase of the mobile money interoperability, 23,000 transactions worth GH¢1.8 million was recorded, and by November 2018 when Dr. Bawumia launched the second phase of the mobile money interoperability, which enabled mobile money connectivity with bank accounts, a whopping 1.3 million transactions worth GH¢134 million had been recorded through the first phase alone.

And by the end of 2018, the year's mobile money transaction value, thanks to the mobile money interoperability, had reached GH¢223 billion - a 43% leap from the previous year's value of GH155 billion, without mobile money interoperability.

Rapid transformation

With the addition of the second phase of the interoperability, which turned Ghana into Africa’s most financially inclusive country at 94%, Ghana's digital payment and mobile money systems had no turning back.

From GH¢223 billion a year in 2018, the value of Ghana's annual mobile money transactions rose by 54% to GH¢344 billion in 2019, by 65% (GH¢569 billion) in 2020 and by 59% (GH¢905 billion) in 2021.

Transactions hit the one trillion cedis mark in 2022 for the first time, and as mobile money interoperability expanded rapidly, a record 79% leap was registered, taking the value of the year's transaction to GH¢1.92 trillion in 2023, before it saw a further 57% surge in 2024 at a total value GH¢3.01 trillion and GH¢4.5 trillion in 2025.

With about 83 million registered mobile money accounts, up from 23.9 in 2017 before mobile money interoperability, Ghana's mobile money transaction has now hit a remarkable GH¢493.2 billion in a single month, (April 2026).

In fact, the latest data on the total value mobile money transaction in April 2026 alone - GH¢493.2 billion - surpasses what was being recorded annually before mobile money interoperability in 2018.

From GH¢155 billion a year in 2017 to GH¢493.2 billion a month is an incredible transformation, which is largely due to mobile money interoperability, which has not only made Ghana Africa’s most financially inclusive country, but also a regional leader in mobile money transaction.

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From GH¢155 billion a year to GH¢500 billion a month! The amazing story of how interoperability for 2018 drove Ghana's mobile money growth

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