After a week of strike, the Collective of mobile money outlets owners has decided to charge 100 CFA francs for each transaction (deposit or withdrawal of money).
Five organizations, including the National Union of owners of mobile money outlets of (Synam-CI) and the Association of independent mobile money merchants (Amimomoci), announced unilaterally in a statement “the renewal of the application of the local service fee of 100 CFA francs per transaction.”
The said amount, the source added, “may be modified (decrease, increase or suppression) depending on the outcome of negotiations with the authorities and operators.” But in Cote d’Ivoire, this type of decision is subject to validation by the Telecoms/ICT Regulatory Authority (ARTCI) and the telephone operators.
The Collective of owners of mobile money points said it expects the state to homologate “the prices and commissions in force in (their) sector (to) guarantee the sustainability,” of their activities.
It is asking operators to restore “immediately and without delay” the accounts of their members who have been terminated due to the application of local service charges. In addition, the collective is calling on mobile money app Wave “to address the cases of abuse, arrest and police custody” of some of its members who have expressed their discontent by stopping work for seven days. The strike order was finally lifted at the end of the extraordinary General Assembly on 9 August.
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