The Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC) has lamented the impact of the electronic transfer levy (e-levy) on its operations.
Board Chairman of GHASALC, Kwame Owusu-Boateng, tells Citi Business News despite the drop in transactions since the implementation of the e-levy, his outfit is doing its best to educate its customers to continue performing transactions with them via the digital payment platforms.
The Association had earlier appealed to the Finance Ministry to exempt its members from the 1.5% percent on payment of loans through mobile money for the reason that the e-levy will put extra financial burden on its customers and discourage businesses and individuals from borrowing from savings and loans companies.
This has however fallen on deaf ears.
Speaking to Citi Business News at the Association’s 12th Annual General Meeting, Board Chairman, Kwame Owusu-Boateng, lamented the impact of the electronic transfer levy on its operations.
“The volume of transactions have come down comparatively after the introduction of the policy. Our job is to make sure that we’ll still be able to stimulate customer transactions so that e-levy doesn’t cripple the digital space. A lot of our members are moving into digital loans and what have you. And if there’s a disincentive for clients to use the digital platforms, then definitely it’ll affect the volumes and the growth.”
He continued, “So yes we’ve seen some slowdown on the digital platforms. We hope that as we encourage our members and educate our clients, it will be a by-product of the volumes that we expect in the long run.”
Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzie, who launched a code of ethics and conduct to regulate the Association and the industry as a whole, highlighted the urgency with which the association must venture into more digital means of operating.
She pledged the Central Bank’s commitment to see to the success of this call.
“The Bank of Ghana has augmented the risk management framework of banks and SDIs in tandem with this increase we see. So our rules on cyber security which is currently under review, our enhanced AMLCFT rules, and our enhanced consumer protection rules are all part of our efforts to ensure that we can safely deploy technology to be able to compete effectively and mitigate the risks that come with it.”
“We will continue to monitor the rapid evolution of the digital financial services and recalibrate our rules and supervisory approaches to mitigate these risks, meanwhile enabling the exploitation of the immense benefits that this phenomenon presents to our entire financial system and our economy as a whole.”
The Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies at the event sworn-in newly elected board members to run the Association for the next two years.
Chairman of the Board is the CEO of Opportunity International Savings and Loans, Kwame Owusu-Boateng with the Managing Director of Advans Ghana Savings and Loans, Olivier Bally-Bechet as his Vice.
Other Board members include Lydia Daddy, Arnold Parker, Yusif Abubakari and Mohammed Aourongjeb.