Airtel Money To Pay Interest To Customers

Airtel Money, a sub brand of Airtel Ghana has announced its readiness, in conjunction with partner banks, to pay interests earned by customers on their Airtel Money wallets effective 11th September 2016.

The interest payment is in line with directives from the Bank of Ghana issued earlier this year for Mobile Money Operators to pay interests on customers’ E-value.

Speaking to the company’s readiness to comply with this directive, Edmund Barwuah, Head of Corporate Sales, Airtel Money said “ we are excited that the Bank of Ghana has given the green light for us to pay interest accrued on the pooled E-money float for eligible customers effective the second week of September.

Together with our partner banks, interest earned for the first half of the year will be paid to customers in two tranches with the first payments made by 11th September covering the period January to March and the second payments made by 18th September covering April to June 2016. As with normal practice, interests are computed on a daily basis and will be paid to customers per quarter or as directed by the Bank of Ghana”.

He continued “Airtel Money has been in the forefront of innovation in the Mobile Money space. Over the years, we have introduced breakthrough innovations such as Tap N Pay – the industry’s first contactless payment system that enable customers pay conveniently for goods and services with a simple tap of their phones on NFC enabled point of sale devices.

We were the first to give customers the freedom to purchase airtime, pay utility bills among others from their Airtel Money wallets. We remain the only operator offering customers the opportunity to send and receive money on their Airtel Money wallets free of all charges. Today marks a milestone in our operations as we are the first operator to have put in place the mechanism to make interest payment on the specified dates to our cherished customers”. 

Explaining how the interest will be paid, he said “working with our partner banks, eligible customers will receive notification detailing interests earned on their Airtel Money wallet balances and the funds will be immediately credited to their wallets. The communication and the first payments covering January to March should reach eligible customers by 11th September and subsequent payments will follow the same procedure. This is indeed an exciting time to be an Airtel Money customer”.

The Bank of Ghana issued the Guidelines for E-Money Issuers (EMI) in Ghana (2015) to regulate Mobile Money operations in the country. The EMI Guidelines directs banks to pay interest on pooled E-value deposits to Telecom operators who will pay these out to eligible customers.