Mobile Money Remittances: Lessons from MTN–Thunes

$20.9 billion. That’s the remittance figure recorded for Nigeria in 2024 (a 9% rise), and it explains why every serious fintech is chasing the same prize: faster, cheaper, more reliable cross-border payments.

MTN’s MoMo Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) just made a clear move in that direction by joining Thunes’ Direct Global Network, enabling Nigerians to receive international funds instantly from key corridors like the USA, UK, Canada, France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and South Africa. The headline is Nigeria-focused, but the playbook is pan-African—especially relevant for Ghana, where mobile money is already the default financial rail for millions.

This post is part of our series, “AI ne Fintech: Sɛnea Akɔntabuo ne Mobile Money Rehyɛ Ghana den.” The bigger point isn’t the partnership announcement. It’s what it signals: cross-border mobile money is becoming an infrastructure race, and AI is increasingly the engine that makes it safe, instant, and scalable.

What the MTN MoMo PSB–Thunes deal really changes

Direct answer: It turns international remittances into a real-time wallet experience instead of a slow, agent-heavy process.

MoMo PSB has roughly 2.7 million users in Nigeria. By connecting to Thunes’ network—built to route money across 130+ countries and 80+ currencies—MoMo can receive inbound transfers directly into mobile wallets in near real time. For the user, that means money from abroad can land and immediately be used to:

• buy airtime and data
• pay bills
• send money to family
• pay for online goods and services

If you’ve worked with remittances, you know the hidden friction: delayed settlement, limited corridors, unclear fees, reconciliation headaches, and failed transactions that customer support can’t explain. A network like Thunes doesn’t magically remove every problem, but it does one critical thing: it standardizes and automates the connectivity layer.

Why this matters for Ghana’s mobile money trajectory

Direct answer: Ghana’s next MoMo growth wave won’t come from local transfers—it will come from cross-border value.

Ghana already has strong mobile money adoption. The question now is what makes MoMo more than a domestic wallet. Cross-border remittances are one of the few products that can:

• increase wallet balances (more float)
• increase transaction frequency (more use cases)
• deepen financial inclusion (more households with regular inflows)

The MTN–Thunes move is a signal to Ghanaian fintech leaders: own the inbound corridor experience or you’ll be disintermediated by someone who does.

The “instant” promise needs AI behind the scenes

Direct answer: Real-time cross-border payments only work at scale when AI automates fraud detection, compliance, and routing decisions.

Many people hear “AI in fintech” and think chatbots. That’s not where the biggest money is. In cross-border payments, AI earns its keep in three unglamorous areas:

1) Fraud and scam detection (before the money hits the wallet)

Inbound remittances attract fraud because they’re high volume and often urgent (school fees, rent, medical bills). AI models can flag anomalies such as:

• unusual sender-recipient patterns
• repeated small transfers designed to avoid thresholds
• device changes, SIM swap signals, or location mismatches

The practical outcome is simple: fewer chargebacks, fewer frozen accounts, fewer angry customers.

2) Compliance automation (AML/KYC at speed)

Cross-border rails must satisfy anti-money laundering checks while still feeling “instant.” Rules-based systems alone create false positives and delays. AI-assisted compliance helps by:

• scoring risk by corridor, amount, behavior, and history
• prioritizing what needs manual review
• learning from confirmed cases to reduce repeat false flags

For Ghana, this is especially relevant because as mobile money grows, regulators expect stronger, not weaker, controls.

3) Smart routing and reconciliation (the part customers never see)

When transfers fail, it’s often because of routing errors, name mismatches, currency conversions, or settlement issues between intermediaries. AI can support:

• route optimization (choose the rail with highest success probability)
• predictive failure detection
• automated reconciliation and dispute triage

Here’s what I’ve found in practice: customers don’t reward you for “the network.” They reward you for certainty—money arrives when you said it would, with fees that match what you advertised.

Why the PSB model is a serious advantage (and what Ghana can copy)

Direct answer: A PSB-like structure gives fintechs a clearer regulatory lane to offer wallet-based financial services at scale.

MoMo PSB sits in a regulated category that allows it to provide a broader suite—payments, insurance, remittances, e-commerce support—without being a traditional bank. That matters because cross-border products require:

• stronger compliance programs
• better reporting
• resilient operational controls

Ghana has its own regulatory frameworks for payment service providers and e-money issuers, but the lesson still holds: cross-border remittances are easier to scale when your licensing and compliance posture are built for it.

A myth worth killing: “Partnerships are just PR”

Direct answer: In cross-border payments, partnerships are the product.

No single African wallet can negotiate and maintain direct connectivity to every bank, wallet, and payout method worldwide. Networks like Thunes exist because connectivity is hard. The smarter strategy is to:

• partner for reach (corridors, payout methods)
• compete on experience (pricing, speed, transparency, trust)

For Ghanaian fintechs and mobile money operators, this is a strategic choice: build everything yourself and move slowly, or partner and ship sooner.

What Ghanaian fintechs should do next (practical playbook)

Direct answer: Treat cross-border remittances like a core product line, then design the AI and operations around reliability.

If you’re building in Ghana—wallet, agent network, merchant payments, lending—cross-border remittances can be your strongest acquisition and retention engine. Here’s a practical sequence that works.

1) Start with 2–3 corridors and win on trust

Don’t launch “global remittance” as a vague promise. Pick corridors that match your user base (for Ghana often UK, USA, EU). Then win on:

• clear fees (no surprises)
• predictable delivery times
• strong customer support scripts for failed transfers

2) Make “transparency UX” a first-class feature

A real remittance product shows the user:

• FX rate used (and when it was locked)
• fees and who pays them
• expected arrival time
• transfer status with meaningful reasons (not just “pending”)

This is where many apps lose trust. People don’t mind paying; they mind being confused.

3) Use AI where it reduces loss and workload

If you’re early-stage, focus AI on high ROI areas:

1. Fraud risk scoring for inbound/outbound transfers
2. Name matching and identity resolution (to reduce failures)
3. Customer support triage (classify issues, suggest resolution steps)

AI should lower operational cost per transaction, not just look impressive in a pitch deck.

4) Build a corridor-level economics dashboard

Cross-border payments live or die by unit economics. Track:

• success rate by corridor
• average time to receive
• % of transfers requiring manual review
• fraud loss rate
• customer complaints per 1,000 transfers

If you can’t measure these weekly, you can’t scale safely.

5) Design for the season you’re in right now: December peaks

It’s late December 2025. Remittance volumes typically spike around holidays because families settle school bills, rent, and end-of-year obligations. This is the worst time to “experiment” with fragile systems.

If you’re shipping cross-border features, do it with:

• conservative limits first
• clear escalation paths
• extra monitoring on high-risk corridors

A single week of failed payouts in December can damage a brand for a full year.

People also ask: what does “real-time remittance” actually mean?

Direct answer: It means the recipient can access funds in minutes (or seconds) in their wallet, not days—though exceptions still happen.

Real-time depends on multiple layers: sender onboarding, compliance checks, routing, FX conversion, and the recipient wallet’s ability to accept funds instantly. Good networks reduce friction, but strong operators also:

• communicate exceptions clearly
• resolve failed transfers quickly
• maintain consistent SLAs

Where this is heading in 2026: cross-border becomes “embedded” in MoMo

Direct answer: The winning wallets will bake cross-border flows into everyday financial tools—savings, lending, merchant payments—not keep it as a standalone feature.

Once a wallet can reliably receive international funds, the next step is to connect those inflows to outcomes users actually care about:

• auto-splitting remittances into savings goals
• using remittance history to underwrite microloans
• enabling merchants to accept international payments and settle locally

This is exactly where AI ne fintech meets real life. AI turns transaction data into decisions: risk, affordability, personalization, and safer payments.

One-liner to remember: Cross-border payments aren’t a feature anymore. They’re infrastructure.

If you’re building or managing a fintech product in Ghana, now is the time to treat remittances and mobile money interoperability as a serious roadmap item—not an afterthought.

What would change in your business if customers could receive diaspora money instantly into their mobile money wallet, then pay merchants and bills the same minute?