Prepaid cards issued in 2021 rose to 834,584 – BoG report
BoG issues 2021 Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report
Commercial banks operating in the country issued close to 5 million debit cards in 2021, the Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report issued by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed.
According to the report, the 2021 figure of 4,936,246, represents an increase of 2.56 percent from 2020.
It added that the international scheme cards issued at the end of December 2021 was 3,647,285, representing 73.89 percent of the total issued debit cards.
This, the BoG report said compared with banks' proprietary cards of 1,288,961, which amounted to 26.11 percent of the total issued debit cards.
On the credit card front, the report said the banks issued 36,237 cards as at the end of December 2021 as compared to 33,039 cards issued in December 2020.
It attributed the rise in the number of credit cards issued due to the central bank’s authorization for additional banks to issue international scheme cards to customers.
For prepaid cards issued within the period, the figure rose to 834,584 at the end of December 2021, compared to 573,703 in 2020.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana attributed the surge in the issuance of various debit cards to the passage of the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987).
It added that the subsequent publication of the various license categories, with the permissible activities and requirements, also resulted in the rise in applications for authorization of payment products and services.
In 2021, the BoG report said some 39 applications for licensing of products and services were received, as compared to 63 in 2020 and 13 in 2019.
It further revealed that out of the 39 applications received in 2021, some 31 applications were processed and approved by the banking sector regulator, Bank of Ghana.
See the full report by released by Bank of Ghana below:
MA/SARA
File photo of credit cards