Fintech License in Ghana
A company that intends to operate as a Dedicated Electronic Money Issuer (DEMI), Payment Service Provider (PSP) or a Payment and Financial Technology Service Provider (PFTSP) in Ghana must be licensed by the Bank of Ghana.
License Categories
There are six (6) license categories. Each license category specifies the permissible activities that can be undertaken.
The license categories and related permissible activities are as follows:
1. Dedicated Electronic Money Issuer
Permissible activities:
- Recruitment and management of agents
- Creation and management of wallet
- P2P On Net / Off Net
- Cash-In and Cash-Out
- Wallet based domestic money transfers including transfers to and from bank
accounts
- Investment, savings, credit, insurance and pension products (ONLY in
partnership with banks and duly regulated institutions)
- Mobile money merchant acquiring
- Termination of Inbound International Money Transfer
2. Payment Service Provider - Scheme
Permissible activities:
- Domestic Card Brand Associations e.g. Gh-Link
- Switching & routing of payment transactions and instructions
3. Payment Service Provider – Enhanced
Permissible activities:
- All permissible activities for PSP-medium license
- Marketplace for financial services offered by duty regulated financial service
providers
- Merchant acquiring and merchant aggregation
- Payment processing
- Printing and personalization of EMV Cards
- Inward International remittances services
- Providing 3rd party payment gateways services
- Limited use closed loop virtual cards (funded via refunds, rewards & user’s
other accounts)
4. Payment Service Provider- Medium
Permissible activities:
- Connection to an Enhanced PSP to offer the following services
- All permissible activities for PSP-standard license
- Payment aggregation which is connected to Enhanced PSP
- Biller/Merchant Aggregation
- POS Deployment
- Printing of non-cash payment instruments eg. cheques
- Mobile payment Apps (with liability shift on PSP Enhanced)
5. Payment Service Provider- Standard
Permissible activities:
- Connection to an Enhanced PSP to offer Mobile payment Apps service.
This Category of license is reserved for Ghanaians and wholly owned Ghanaian
entities.
6. Payment and Financial Technology Service Provider (PFTSP)
Permissible activities:
- Digital Product development, delivery and support services
- Credit scoring predictive analytics
- AML/CFT centralised platform
- Fraud Management services
- Know your Customer(KYC) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) authentication
services
- Connection to DEMIs, PSPs, Banks and Financial Institutions
Start-up business - compliance to sector-specific laws.
It is important for a start-up business to identify the regulatory bodies that are relevant to its business operations and ensure strict compliance to sector-specific regulations.
Sector Specific Laws
Sector-specific laws are laws that govern business operations within particular industries. Examples of some industries with sector specific laws in Ghana are Banking, Insurance, Telecommunications, Gaming and Mining.
Sector-specific laws may prescribe the requirements for obtaining a licence within the industry, transfer of shares as well as specify percentage of shares that can be held by foreign investors within the industry.