Pan African Payments Company Cellulant acquires PSP License in Ghana as it rolls out a digital payments solution for businesses.
To curb inefficiencies in digital payments, Cellulant has successfully rolled out Tingg, a digital payments platform enabling businesses and their consumers to accept and make payments seamlessly.
However, Cellulant Ghana Country Manager, Eric Kortey, expressed delight over the product launch and license acquisition. He shared his optimism about the future of payments and the Fintech ecosystem in the country.
“We believe that Ghana is fast becoming a hub for fintech in Africa. Being licensed by the Bank of Ghana means a lot to the growth of our industry and opens doors to increased security and confidence in digital payments systems. Cellulant’s digital payments platform is allowing every Ghanaian to pay for their goods and services through any payment channel of their choice.”
Eric Kortey
Speaking on the rollout of Tingg, Mr Eric Kortey added that it is easier to use and also addresses fragmentation of payments.
“Cellulant is addressing the fragmentation of payments for both businesses and their consumers. The digital platform, which recently also launched in Zambia, offers simplified payment tools and processes for a merchant to manage their payments. As a result, businesses can allow their customers to make payments for goods and services using locally relevant payment options.”
Eric Kortey
Meanwhile, digital payments has seen tremendous growth in the past couple of years. As of January 2021, 38.9 percent of the population aged 15 years and above had a mobile money account in Ghana. The share of mobile money users has increased over the previous three years as Ghanaians have gradually adopted a robust digital payment infrastructure.
However, cash remains a dominant preference for payments. One of the contributing factors for preference of cash over digital payments is the high costs of digital payments that are often passed on to users, a lack of trust in, or familiarity with digital payments.
With a view to maintaining a sound financial system, promoting financial inclusion and innovation, and ensuring the safety, security, and stability of Ghana’s financial sector, the Bank of Ghana redefined the categories and permissible activities for financial technology companies with PSP enhanced licenses. The allowed services include mobile payments, bulk payments, and mobile banking.
This license also allows for the provision of 3rd party payment gateways, a marketplace for duly regulated financial service providers, merchant acquisition and aggregation, the printing, and presentation of EMV cards, inward international remittance services, as well as limited use of closed-loop virtual cards.
This announcement comes after the Central Bank of Ghana issued Cellulant a Payment Services Provider (PSP) License. The PSP License allows Cellulant to aggregate merchant services, process financial services, acquire merchants, deploy POS systems, and aggregate payments for banks, institutions, and the general public.
Meanwhile, the license is a requirement under the Payment Services Act 2019 which mandates that all Financial Technology or digital payments’ companies be licensed by the Bank of Ghana before they can operate in the country.
Cellulant is a leading Pan-African financial technology company providing a one-stop digital payments platform. Today, Cellulant has an office presence in 18 African countries with a payment platform connecting thousands of businesses with 154 payment options across 35 countries. The platform powers payments for 220 million consumers on a single inclusive network allowing for interoperability across Africa.
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