Bank of Ghana Suspends Taptap Send’s Operation in Ghana Citing Regulatory Breach

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has suspended popular remittance platform Taptap Send’s partnerships with local payment service providers and commercial banks for one month, starting from November 8, 2024. This move comes after the BoG found that Taptap Send was operating a Ghanaian cedi remittance wallet, which violates Ghana’s Foreign Exchange Act of 2006 and the country’s guidelines for money transfer services.

In its official statement, the BoG highlighted that Taptap Send’s activities contravened Section 3(1) of the Foreign Exchange Act, which prohibits any entity from engaging in foreign exchange business without an appropriate license. According to this law, only licensed entities are authorized to conduct such transactions within Ghana’s financial sector.

The Bank of Ghana further noted that Taptap Send failed to adhere to key sections of the Updated Guidelines for Inward Remittance Services. These guidelines mandate payment service providers to promptly credit local settlement accounts and enforce strict anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) controls. The guidelines also require that settlement banks only process payments for beneficiaries and that any suspected violations are immediately reported to the BoG.

By taking this regulatory action, the BoG aims to uphold the stability and integrity of Ghana’s financial system and has warned that any further breaches by Taptap Send or other operators will result in stricter penalties.

The official statement from BoG