The Alliance for Financial Consumer Protection (AFCOP) has received with great satisfaction, news that Vodafone Ghana has waived fees on transfers from Vodafone Cash to all mobile money wallets.
Over the past months, AFCOP has been advocating for financial service providers, including mobile money operators, to offer meaningful reliefs to consumers in order to partially alleviate the negative economic impact of COVID-19 on households.
It is against this background that AFCOP highly commends Vodafone Ghana for showing leadership by elevating consumer interest above its corporate revenue and profit interests. AFCOP is particularly pleased that Vodafone did not limit the fee waiver to only transfers terminating in Vodafone Cash wallets.
With health experts warning that a potential mode of transmission of the coronavirus is through the handling of cash, it is imperative that players in the digital finance ecosystem commit themselves to driving consumer behaviour change; by nudging consumers to choose digital channels over cash transactions.
AFCOP believes the most viable way to build a cash lite society is by lowering the cost of using digital channels. We therefore call on other mobile money operators in Ghana to follow Vodafone’s exemplary leadership by also waiving fees on all mobile money transfers. There can be no greater service to humanity than this, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, AFCOP renews its call on all financial service providers to show genuine empathy towards consumers and to eschew tokenism and public relations gimmickry.