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7000 MTN MoMo agents sanctioned for violating telco's 'No ID, No cash out' directive

Ghana's telecommunication giant, MTN has frozen and suspended wallets or accounts of about 7,000 Mobile Money Agents who failed to comply with the new mobile money withdrawal security mechanism.

MTN mobile money

MTN Mobile Money introduced a directive to all its Agents that all customers intending to withdraw funds from their accounts provide any legally recognized national identification card for validation or be denied access to the funds.

This new measure, which became enforceable from April 1, 2021, is MTN’s response to the increasing cases of impersonation and fraudulent access to customer’s mobile money wallets.

Interacting with journalists in a virtual media briefing, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Mobile Money, Eli Hini, disclosed that Mobile Money Agents whose wallets have been blocked have been given a grace period of up to Thursday, April 15, to access their capital after which MTN Mobile Money will educate them on the importance of the new security measure and why they must also demand that every customer produces an ID card before withdrawal.

The affected Agents will then be made to sign a commitment agreement with the company to enforce the policy before they would be allowed back into the mobile money transaction business.

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The over 7,000 Agents sanctioned form 3% of the over 250,000 registered MoMo Agents employed by MTN across the country to transact mobile money business.

Mr. Hini said from today an additional security feature in the form of a ‘pop up’ of customer’s personal details would be rolled out for a Mobile Money Agent to validate the personal information as captured on the available ID Card before customers would gain access to their money. This, he noted, is a confidence-building mechanism to safeguard funds saved with MTN MoMo from fraudsters.

Mr. Hini urged mobile money customers not to expose their PIN codes to anybody including Agents since anything contrary to this will compromise safety of their monies.

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