To climax the 10th anniversary celebration of its Mobile Money (MoMo) service, MTN Ghana on Friday showed appreciation to stakeholders for their contribution towards the success of the service.

MoMo allows customers to use mobile phones to directly send monies into their bank accounts and vice versa, purchase airtime, and pay bills.

The telecommunication network rewarded them with citations and plaques.

The categories for the awards were; ‘Pioneering Momo Partner Banks' - Fidelity Bank, Ecobank, Cal Bank, GT Bank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, UMB, and Stanbic Bank.

Barclay’s Bank, Republic Bank, and First Atlantic Bank were adjudged as ‘Emerging Partner Banks with Great Impact”, while Fidelity Bank was also honoured as the ‘MoMo Partner Bank Frontrunner’.

Other categories were; the ‘MoMo Fintech Pioneer’ - IT Consortium, and CoreNett Limited, and ‘Emerging and Innovative Fintech Partner' – ‘appsNmobile Solutions'.

miLife Insurance, was honoured with the ‘First MoMo Advance Service Award', DSTV of MultiChoice Ghana Limited with the ‘First MoMo Bill Payment Award,’ Ghana National College with the ‘First MoMo School Fees Award' and Star Oil Company as the ‘Most Supportive MoMo Merchant.’

Individuals were also awarded for their contributions to the success of MoMo.

They were; Mr Gideon Osei Amoako as the ‘MoMo Patron,’ Mrs Elly Ohene-Adu as the ‘MoMo Powerbroker,’ Dr Settor Kwabla Amediku as the ‘MoMo Regulatory Influencer,’ and Mr Eli Hini as the ‘MoMo Trailblazer.’

Others were; Mr Bruno Akpaka as the ‘MoMo Master Minder,’ Mr George Nenyi Andah as the ‘MoMo Brand Builder,’ and Mr Ebenezer Twum Asante as the ‘MoMo Game Change.’

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana Limited, said MoMo enhanced financial inclusion, economic growth, and accelerated development by creating jobs for people.

He, therefore, urged the government to join forces with stakeholders to develop strategies that would leverage the power of MoMo to recapitalise economic potential growth.

He pledged the commitment of MTN to support government’s agenda to digitise the economy, such as the ‘government to people and people to government form of payment'.

Mr Eli Hini, the General Manager of MTN MoMo, said MTN Ghana needed a committed leadership and workers to sustain MoMo when it was launched in July 21, 2009.

He commended staff and all stakeholders including; MoMo agents and customers for sustaining and contributing to the growth of the service.

Over 100,000 customers subscribed to the service six months after it was launched, however, it currently has over 14 million subscribers, out of which nine million were 30-days active users, he said.

Mr Hini said MTN currently had 140,000 active mobile money agents nationwide.

He mentioned fraud as one challenge the network faced with the MoMo service, however, the company had invested heavily to control the canker.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance in a speech delivered on his behalf commended MTN for providing jobs for almost half of the population.

He encouraged MTN to work directly with microfinance institutions to drive growth of the financial sector.

Source: GNA