MTN to Build Forensic Laboratory for Ghana Police Service

The Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) would be establishing a standard forensic laboratory for the Ghana Police Service to enhance investigations, evidence collection and authentication as the country dream of controlling crime and other related social vices.

The Company would also train 100 physically challenged in the MoMo Business and set them up to economically empower them.

Mr. Eli Hini, the General Manager for Mobile Money Transactions of the MTN said building the laboratory “is our way of saying thank you to the Service for their massive support in curbing crimes and fraudulence that has become a major challenge in the Momo sector”.

Though fraudsters continued to scheme to outwit, dupe and make the Momo industry unattractive to some members of society, arrest of these miscreant, continuous education on safe keeping of pin numbers by subscribers and the support of the Ghana Police have largely contributed to its successes over the last ten years.

Mr. Hini at the launch of the 10th anniversary in Takoradi, under the theme: “MoMo @10, Making life Simple” said it was to celebrate a decade of innovation and most transformational technological innovations that had been introduced in country.

“Mobile Money, MoMo, as we all call now, has come to make life simple and comfortable for most people. It is not an exaggeration when I say that MoMo has impacted the lives of millions of Ghanaians across the country”, he added.

He expressed gratitude to key stakeholders, customers and regulators especially, the Bank of Ghana for working with the company to grow the Mobile Money service into a buoyant financial sector.

Mr Hini noted that MoMo service begun with MTN’s desire to get the Mobile phone to go beyond the ordinary, “we officially launched the service on July 21st 2009 with the Governor. The beginning was very slow and extremely difficult because what we had introduced was not just a breakthrough in technology – it was also going to break the sociology of how money is used and exchanged.”

He mentioned that decade down the line; MoMo had become the foremost payment system in the country with 14 million subscribers and 18 partner banks.

Currently, MoMo run transactions from international partners and have forged partnerships with Visa, Google, Western Union, and Mastercard.

Beyond financial inclusion, the introduction of Mobile Money into the Ghanaian payment system had created employment for thousands of people.

The Manager said as of the end of May this year, the number of active Mobile Money agents in the Western Region stood at 24,500.

MTN MoMo set a world record – during the launch of MTN’s Initial Public Offer, which allowed people to buy shares using MoMo.

“While we celebrate the achievements made over the past decade, we do not lose sight of the challenges that face us in the Mobile Money sector…there are still concerns about fraud activities.  We continue to call on everyone to constantly educate friends and families to be extra vigilant in protecting their Mobile Money wallets.” he added.

DSP Olivia Adiku, Regional Police PRO advised the market women to endeavour to memorize their pin code and never to make it public to any third party as it had become the only means for fraudsters to thrive.

Source: GNA