Adwo was in a neighbourhood shop to buy a few groceries, she met two other people in the shop, they were there for some Mobile Money (Momo) transactions.
Adwoa focused on buying the items till the Momo Merchant said “That is all, we won’t charge anything else” she went on to educate the man about what transactions will attract E-Levy charges and which ones will not.
The man’s comment after the E-levy education stuck with me, he said “Aaah, so is this why they have scared us so much,” she drew closer to him and said what did you think?
” They said the government was going to take a lot of money from us for sending Momo, I was initially very scared about the ‘supposed’ amounts to be deducted and I panicked anytime, I thought of doing a Momo transaction but my experience this evening has proven otherwise.
As a communicator, the man’s outburst about his feelings on the E-Levy was awakening, perhaps we haven’t done right as a country in how we educate and communicate to the masses about government policies
E-Levy Politicised?
Is the information about the E-Levy Politicised? There could have been enough education but the information churned out was so politicised that people were torn between supporting or not supporting.
There are some educational flyers from the Government circulating on social media about the E-Levy, however, people may not take the time to study the practical details of the amounts to be deducted should they engage in a Momo transaction or an electronic money transaction.
The concern of many citizens who try to stay above the political cacophony is to try and understand where the money will go and what the money will do for fellow Ghanaians
People tend to politicise most of our developmental policies robbing the ordinary citizen and for that matter Ghanaians, of the gift of understanding and objectively questioning policies should there be a need.
An example is when the opposition met the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the U-Turn that followed when VAT was finally accepted as a tax policy in Ghana.
Economic Crisis
The world is experiencing an economic crisis, that is something we often hear these days when the government attempts to explain the current economic situation.
Economic crises are not new, it dates to biblical times, what is required is good planning, discipline, and the zeal to make it through the crises.
Joseph in the Bible dreamt of an impending economic crisis in Egypt and helped plan such that when the rest of the world was experiencing the crisis, Egypt became the food capital of the world and people travelled to buy food in Egypt.
Some predictions by certain astrologers indicate that it has just begun since the world is approaching an Aquarius age, it will get worse before it gets better, some have suggested that we invest in Agriculture and plant what we eat
The way forward, some say, is to start planning now, we must survive this
Negative versus Positive Talk
There is a proverb that says that “if a dooms prophet predicts that the town is going to collapse, he is also in the town”
It is worrying how as a people we descend so low as to insult our leaders sometimes even for things that they do not have control over.
It is so common, especially on social media for someone who does not have their lives together yet, to spew insults and condemnation of the country just because of a leader they may not like.
Instead of insults, why not provide an alternative solution on social media, if one’s solutions make sense people will buy into it, rather than spewing falsehood about the country and its policies
It is interesting how the Mobile Money Agents Association has changed its stance on the E-Levy.
The Association says it is convinced that the tax will help revive the economy.
Evans Otumfuo, Secretary of the Mobile Money Agents Association, said the association met with the Ministry of Finance and their concerns have been addressed.
Is it possible that the Momo Agents Association were also misinformed just Like the man who felt so scare because of the misinformation about the E-Levy?
As a country we need to up our game when it comes to information dissemination because as Laksaman Sukardi, Former Minister for state owned enterprises of New Zealand, said, a society that is misinformed is a dangerous society.
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