Lives of MoMo Agents Paramount to E- Levy
By Nana Afrane Asante
Director of Operations Research and Implementation for Mobile Money Advocacy of Ghana (MOMAG) Stephen Quarcoo Gorman has stated that the lives of momo agents is paramount to the scraping of the E- Levy tax.
The Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson on March 11, 2025, announced government’s intention to scrap the E-Levy and some other taxes during the budget reading in parliament, a move welcomed by citizens and many businesses across the country.
The leadership of Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana (MMAAG) recently revealed that a staggering 17,000 mobile money businesses across the country have collapsed following the implementation of the electronic transaction levy (E-levy).
However, the association are raising other serious concerns, they believe must be given the full attention by the security agencies to curb the recent killing of their agents
The recent one being a 24-year-old mobile money vendor, identified only as ‘Junior’, who was killed in his one-room apartment at Kwadaso in the Ashanti region. This is the fifth attack on a mobile money vendor so far this year.
In an interview with The New Finder, Mr. Gorman said even though the association welcomed the move by the finance minister to scrap the E- Levy, they believe the safety of their agents still remain paramount.
“We know that It will boost the confidence in the customers; I mean those who stopped using the service because of E- Levy”.
“Currently our main concern is not about the E- Levy, though we are happy about it, but based on the current situation on the grounds in terms of security which has negatively affected our business, the E- Levy can be scrapped off”.
“But as far as the agents are not safe to go about their day-to-day business, it will not be high value to the agent because their safety is paramount amongst everything”.
“Our main priority is our safety and we have written letters and communicated officially to the Ministry of Interior and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) but we have not heard anything so we are even writing a follow up letter”.
He believes this should be a national security concern due to the number of lives lost so far this year.
“This should be a national security concern because from January until now we have lost about five lives and those who have been robbed that the media hasn’t gotten the attention are also a lot and it keeps happening,” he stressed. “We can’t wait until every agent dies on the street for our leaders will start to notice it”.
