Ghana's mobile money users made 1,046 million mobile money transactions worth GHS 518.8 billion in August, more than five times the GHS 95.1 billion recorded by GhIPSS Instant Pay.
Mobile money handled 51 times as many transactions as Instant Pay, maintaining its position as Ghana's dominant digital payment channel. The value of transactions through Instant Pay rose 61% between August 2025 and August 2026.
The average mobile money transaction in August was about GHS 496, compared with approximately GHS 4,640 for Instant Pay transfers. Mobile money is widely used for everyday transactions, including market purchases, transport fares, remittances and payments to small businesses. Instant Pay facilitates transfers between bank accounts and is used for larger payments.
Ghana had 85.8 million registered mobile money accounts in August, but only 26.4 million were active, meaning they had recorded transactions within the previous 90 days. The number of registered accounts exceeded the country's population, suggesting many users held more than one wallet.
The gap between registered and active accounts also showed that registrations alone could not provide a complete picture of actual usage.
Shaibu Haruna, chief executive of MobileMoney Fintech Limited (MMFL), called for greater collaboration among industry players and customers to tackle digital financial fraud. He said the company was investing in technology and security solutions to protect its platform, but customers also had a responsibility to safeguard their accounts.
MMFL processed more than 26 million transactions daily and was scaling up artificial intelligence tools to help detect and combat fraud.
The growing use of digital payments presents opportunities for banks and mobile money operators, but also raises questions about reliability, pricing and security. For banks, the faster growth of Instant Pay suggests customers are willing to use bank transfer systems when they are convenient and affordable.
For mobile money operators, the challenge is to retain everyday users while larger-value transactions increasingly move through bank channels.