The Bank of Ghana’s new directive explicitly prohibiting the use of Non-Resident Margin Accounts (NRMA) for remittances processed through Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) has sent shockwaves through the fintech and remittance sector.
Industry players describe the move as a major blow that will significantly disrupt the flow of diaspora remittances into Ghana.
Non-Resident Margin Accounts (NRMA) is a special foreign currency account (usually in USD, EUR, or GBP) opened by non-resident individuals or companies with banks in Ghana.
This new directive is contanted in a, released by the Bank of Ghana on April 14, 2026 is in pursuant Foreign Exchange Act, 2006 (Act 723) and Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930) by the central bank to provide regulatory clarity and operational direction on the maintenance and use of Non-Resident Margin Accounts (NRMA)
According to industry estimates, 60 –70% of formal international remittances into Ghana are currently processed or settled through NRMA or similar non-resident accounts.
In 2025, Ghana received approximately $4.8 billion in official remittances. A large share of this especially from popular MTO platforms such as Western Union, MoneyGram, WorldRemit, and Remitly relied on NRMA for efficient settlement in Ghana Cedis.
The new guidelines now bar NRMA from being used for MTO-processed remittances, forcing these transactions to go through slower and more expensive direct bank-to-bank channels only.
Fintech companies and digital remittance providers are among the hardest hit. Many had built their Ghana operations around the speed and cost-efficiency offered by NRMA settlement.
A senior executive at one of Ghana’s leading fintech remittance firms, who asked not to be named, said “This directive essentially kills the business model we have spent years building. NRMA allowed us to deliver near-instant payouts to recipients. Forcing everything through direct bank channels will increase costs, slow down processing times, and make our services less competitive.”
Several fintechs have already warned that the change could lead to higher transaction fees passed on to customers, longer payout times (from minutes to several days in some cases), reduced volumes as customers shift to informal channels, job losses in the remittance and fintech sector
Smaller players and new entrants into the remittance market are expected to be affected the most, as they lack the infrastructure to quickly adapt to direct bank-to-bank settlement requirements.
Analysts fear the ban will push a significant portion of remittances back into the informal “parallel” market, undermining the Bank of Ghana’s goal of increasing transparency and FX inflows through official channels.
A diaspora investment advisor noted “Many Ghanaians abroad choose MTOs because of speed and convenience. If those services become slower and more expensive, people will simply use other unregulated channels. The BoG may end up seeing less, not more, money coming through the formal banking system.”
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