The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has announced that the revised Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) rate of 1% will go into effect on Wednesday, January 11, 2023.
The government reduced the 1.5 percent electronic transaction levy to 1 percent effective January 2023 in its 2023 Budget and Economic Policy Statement.
Parliament has also approved the cut.
In a statement, the chamber said it is working “assiduously with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other key institutions, to ensure a seamless implementation of the revised levy from Wednesday, January 11, 2023.”
Since its inception, the levy has failed to meet all of its revenue targets, raising concerns among telco players about the feasibility of running an effective mobile money service with the levy in place.
Following the implementation of the levy, telcos reported a loss of over 300,000 mobile money subscribers in April 2022.
According to the Summary of Economic and Financial Data (May 2022), just ahead of the implementation of the E-levy in May, active mobile money subscribers fell to 18.6 million in April from 18.9 million the previous month.
Furthermore, the mobile money industry lost 4,000 active agents, as their number fell to 454,000 in April from 458,000 the previous month, which is reflected in the value of transactions, which fell by GH2.8 billion during the time period under consideration.
