Africa’s mobile money taxes risk driving poor out of digital economy

Kenyan housekeeper Brenda Vitute withdraws cash from an agent working for mobile money service M-pesa in Nairobi, Kenya. Vitute said she uses mobile money to shop, pay bills and send money to her mother and children. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

Ghanaian grocery store owner Comfort Ankrah has had to rethink how she does business since the government put a tax on mobile money transactions earlier this month.

For eight years, the 45-year-old single mother relied on mobile transfers to run her shop in Accra’s Darkuman suburb – from taking customer payments to paying the farmers who supply her with plantain, cassava and other everyday staples.