The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has officially refuted claims that MTN Ghana’s MobileMoney Limited has been licensed to conduct cross-border transactions with Nigeria.
In a notice issued on March 20, 2025, the central bank made it clear that MTN’s MoMo services are not authorized for such operations.
BoG’s statement follows recent media reports suggesting that MTN Ghana was facilitating direct money transfers between Ghana and Nigeria. The bank categorically denied these claims, emphasizing that MobileMoney Limited has “not been licensed or authorized to conduct cross-border transactions.”
Instead, the notice highlighted a new fintech innovation being tested under BoG’s regulatory sandbox. The bank has approved Brij Fintech Ghana, a licensed Payment Service Provider (PSP), to pilot BrijX, a B2B currency swap platform. BrijX is designed to serve as a digital marketplace that enables direct currency exchanges between the Ghanaian Cedi and the Nigerian Naira without the need for forex movement.
According to BoG, the pilot, which was approved in 2024, began in February 2025 with select MTN MoMo customers and will soon extend to G-Money users. The testing phase is subject to several restrictions, including transaction limits, a cap on the number of participants, and strict adherence to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
The BoG stated that upon completion of the pilot, it will assess the effectiveness of the BrijX model to determine its viability for future policy considerations. The central bank reiterated its commitment to “safe, efficient, and affordable cross-border payments, particularly in Africa,” while continuing its broader regulatory efforts in the fintech space.
This clarification from the BoG serves as a response to growing speculation regarding the role of MTN Ghana in international money transfers. While MTN remains a major player in Ghana’s mobile financial services sector, its MobileMoney platform remains restricted to domestic transactions unless otherwise authorized by the central bank.
For now, BoG has reaffirmed that the only ongoing cross-border digital payment initiative under its supervision is the BrijX pilot.
