MTN Ghana warns MoMo loan defaulters they can no longer evade repayment

MTN Ghana has warned customers who fail to repay loans obtained through its Mobile Money (MoMo) service that they can no longer avoid detection by changing their SIM cards.

Dickson Amoung-Yam, MTN Ghana’s Field Service Manager (Network) in Kumasi, said borrowers’ Ghana Card details were linked to their MoMo accounts and were used to identify them within the company’s system.

“Borrowers who take loans and refuse to pay can no longer escape because of the Ghana Card they used to register on their accounts.”

Mr Amoung-Yam made the comments in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a media and stakeholders’ engagement organised by MTN Ghana in Sunyani.

He said some customers had previously attempted to avoid repaying loans by disposing of the SIM cards through which they had accessed the money and obtaining new ones.

He expressed concern that: “previously, some people used their SIM cards to access loans and later disposed them off for new ones to avoid repayment,”

However, he warned that anyone who tried to register another SIM card would be detected because the customer’s details were already stored in the service system.

Mr Amoung-Yam encouraged customers who had borrowed through the MoMo service to settle their debts on time. He said timely repayment would help ensure that other people could also benefit from the loan service.

The MTN Ghana manager also said customer satisfaction remained central to the company’s operations. He explained that the objective continued to motivate the company to improve its services and invest heavily in efforts aimed at guaranteeing customer satisfaction.

He urged customers to report any difficulties they experienced with MTN services so the company could investigate them and provide the necessary attention.

Mr Amoung-Yam said the company’s operations had not been prevented by any barrier, pointing to the increased availability of mobile services in different parts of Ghana.

“Even farmers at their farms are now able to make calls and send messages from the forest,”

He said the situation indicated that every area in Ghana was gradually being covered by network signals.

The comments were made during an engagement intended to bring MTN Ghana together with the media and other stakeholders in Sunyani. The discussions included the company’s approach to customer service, the use of MoMo facilities and the availability of its network.

Mr Amoung-Yam also said customers could use several applications provided by the company to avoid the long queues that were often seen at MTN offices.

He advised customers to make use of those Apps when accessing available services, rather than automatically travelling to an MTN office and waiting in line. His message was that customers should repay MoMo loans promptly, raise complaints when services fail and use the company’s available digital options where possible.