Vice President who doubles as the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has opined that, the adoption of Mobile Money interoperability could replace the elusive common currency among African countries.
Dr. Bawumia speaking at the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) Interoperability Symposium in Accra on Friday, July 5, 2024 pointed out that, the elusive idea of common currency could not be a reality due to some countries inability to meet the convergence criteria, thus, highlighted the need for interoperability.
“Making mobile money interoperable allows our citizens across the continent to trade seamlessly and so this is where I believe as African countries we need to focus on. One of the common problems of achieving a common currency was the difficulty of our respective countries in achieving the macro-economic convergence.”
“The idea of a common currency which came in 1963 has really been overtaken by the digital payment age that today you can think about mobile money as a common currency. If we make it interoperable, we don’t need to have the common currency before we get the benefits.”
He encouraged all African leaders to put in much effort to push for interoperability at a continental level, starting with bilateral agreements.
“Ghana and Nigeria, for example, can begin with mobile money interoperability between our countries. We should not wait for the whole continent. I believe that If we are serious about it, we can work towards mobile money Interoperability at the continental stage and, therefore, we should move away in this regard from the macro-economic convergence criteria to digital payment convergence criteria,” the Vice President added.
In furtherance to this, the Vice President called for strong political will to drive the initiative to achieve the aim of the symposium.
“Without political will, it is not likely to be achieved. It takes a lot of effort to bring stakeholders together on a common platform,” he urged.