ID card for MoMo transactions date extended to April 1

Adnan Adams Mohammed

 

MTN Ghana has extended the date on which it will start requiring its customers to present a valid national identification (ID) card for transactions on its mobile money (MoMo) platform.

The new date hinted is April 1, 2021, almost two months away from the initial date given which was expected to start next week, February 1, 2021.

With just a week left for the rollout of the new system which most Ghanaians have been agitating about because it is really going to be a hurdle for MoMo transactions since if a customer forgets his or her ID card at home then such a customer cannot do any MoMo transaction. But, the telecommunications giant explains that the extension is to allow the company provide a timeline for sensitization to its mobile money agents and customers.

“That timeline will now be first of April for full implementation because we are trying to give adequate time to ensure customer education has gone to all the areas of the country,” the General Manager of Mobile Money Limited, Eli Hini hinted.

This means that, from April 1, 2021, transactions on the MTN mobile money platform will require customers to present a Driving License, a valid passport, the Ghana Card, Voter ID card, NHIS and SSNIT Identifications which have been sanctioned for use.

MTNGhana explains that, the new requirement for IDs will also go towards assisting its customers and agents to deal with mobile money related fraud which have been on the rise.

“It’s not a new requirement it’s just that it has been very lax. Typically, if you look on all our posters, we have put it there clearly at the agent point that all transactions should come with IDs but over the period, a lot of our agents have laxed that, unless you go to our branches and our key stakeholder points, that’s where they enforce it and what is coming out is that most customers would rather avoid those places and go to where IDs are not demanded,” Hini explained.

He added, “We have realized that is also impacting on the fraud issues as well, and we needed to step it up. We are now doing it on a system level, so the system is now demanding the agent to make that as part of the transaction process, it’s to help us also deal with our fraud issues that have become very much of a challenge”.