An economist has raised questions about how telecommunications companies are taking over banking services in the country.

Dr Kofi Osei Adu, who is a lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), told Ghana Yensom host Kwame Appiah Kubi on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday, 3 November 2021 that it is a worrying development in the financial sector of the economy that telcos are now playing the roles of traditional banks.

In his view, telcos paying interest on the accounts of mobile money subscribers and offering them loans among other financial services, must be checked.

He said the telcos have no such mandate to pay interest and offer loans to customers as the traditional banks.

Dr Osei Adu questioned why the Bank of Ghana (BoG) is mute on the activities of the telcos in the financial sector of the economy.

“The telcos are fast-deviating from their core mandate of communications service providers,” he noted.

Dr Adu said because the BoG has relaxed the rules of engagement, it has given the telcos the impetus to drift off their mandate.

He noted that some of the telcos are reneging on their mandate and focusing more on the mobile money sector.