Imagine walking into a small shop, picking up an item worth GH¢10 and reaching for your phone to make a payment. You have the money in your MoMo wallet, the vendor has a MoMo-enabled phone, and the transaction should take only a few seconds.

Yet, just before you confirm the payment, you are told: “Add GH¢1 for MoMo.”

For many Ghanaians, this has become an increasingly familiar experience. What was introduced as a convenient alternative to carrying physical cash is, in some instances, becoming an additional cost for customers who simply want to pay digitally.

The problem is not necessarily the amount being demanded. Sometimes it is 50 pesewas, GH¢1 or more. The frustration comes from the principle: why should a customer pay more simply because they choose to use Mobile Money to settle a bill?

Mobile Money was designed to make financial transactions easier, faster and more accessible. It allows people to send and receive money, pay for goods and services, and conduct transactions without having to carry cash. But when a customer buys an item at an advertised price and is subsequently told to pay an additional charge because the payment is being made through MoMo, that convenience begins to feel like a punishment.

The practice is particularly common among some small and medium-sized businesses, including roadside vendors, food sellers, traders and other informal businesses. A product may be advertised at GH¢20, but once the customer says, “I will pay by MoMo,” an extra cost has to be paid.

For customers, the message is clear: bring cash or pay extra.

That defeats the very convenience digital payments are supposed to provide.

There is also a deeper problem behind this practice. Ghana has invested heavily in building a digital financial ecosystem, yet cash remains deeply embedded in everyday transactions. Even as MoMo usage continues to expand, many transactions eventually end at the same place: cash-out.Ghanaian culture insights

The question, therefore, is whether Ghana has fully embraced digital payments or has merely created another route for people to access physical cash.

Part of the answer may lie in how businesses use MoMo. Some vendors operate their businesses using personal MoMo accounts rather than properly registered merchant platforms. For such vendors, transaction costs and the structure of the account may create genuine concerns about how much they lose when customers pay digitally.

But that concern cannot automatically justify passing an arbitrary charge on to the customer.

If a vendor’s business model requires a particular type of payment account, then the solution should be to use the appropriate merchant service rather than turn every customer into a source of compensation for the vendor’s transaction costs.

This is where the telecommunications companies and regulators have an important role to play.

Many customers and small-business operators simply do not understand the difference between personal MoMo accounts and merchant payment solutions, nor do they fully understand the costs attached to different types of transactions. That knowledge gap creates room for misunderstanding and, in some cases, exploitation.

The telecommunications companies cannot simply celebrate rising MoMo transactions while leaving users to navigate these problems on their own. They must do more public education, particularly among small businesses, on how merchants should receive digital payments, what charges apply and what alternatives are available.

The regulator must also provide clearer guidance on what vendors are permitted to charge customers for digital payments. If additional charges are prohibited or restricted under existing rules, that information must be communicated in simple language and enforced consistently.

At the same time, consumers have a role to play. Customers should ask questions when an additional charge is imposed and avoid normalising the practice simply because the amount is small. A GH¢1 charge may appear insignificant in isolation, but repeated across thousands of transactions, it becomes a substantial additional cost for consumers and an incentive for businesses to continue the practice.

There is, however, a need to be fair to vendors. Not every businessperson who adds a charge is necessarily trying to exploit customers. Some may genuinely be trying to recover transaction costs or may simply be unaware of the appropriate merchant payment options.

That is why education should come before punishment, while deliberate abuse should not be ignored.

The bigger concern is that arbitrary MoMo charges could discourage people from using digital payments. If customers repeatedly hear that paying electronically will cost them more, some will understandably return to cash. That would undermine efforts to build a more efficient digital payment culture.

Ghana should be moving in the opposite direction.

The objective should be to create a system where a customer can walk into a shop, buy an item for GH¢10 and pay exactly GH¢10 electronically, unless a clearly disclosed and legitimately applicable charge exists.

Convenience should remain convenience.

However, on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, August 10, Godfred proposed the complete removal of the cash-out option from MoMo as a way of transforming the country’s transaction system into a cashless one.

“I think that option on MoMo, which is the cash-out section, should be taken over. People need to be forced to do the right thing.”

The success of Ghana’s digital payment revolution should not be measured only by the number of MoMo accounts or the volume of transactions recorded. It should also be measured by whether ordinary people can use those services conveniently, transparently and without feeling that they are being punished for choosing digital payments over cash.Ghanaian culture insights

The phone was supposed to replace the wallet.

It should not become another reason to pay more.

Key recommendations to strengthen the feature’s conclusion:

Telcos should intensify education for SMEs on merchant MoMo accounts, transaction costs and proper digital-payment practices.

Bank of Ghana should clearly communicate the rules on surcharges for MoMo payments and investigate recurring complaints.

SMEs/vendors should register for appropriate merchant-payment services instead of relying on personal MoMo accounts for business transactions.

Consumers must ask for the reason behind additional charges and report persistent or clearly arbitrary charges.

DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author's, and do not reflect those of The Independent