MoMo Cross-Border Payments: Lessons for Ghana’s AI Fintech

A simple truth about mobile money: it only feels “complete” when it works beyond your borders. That’s why MTN’s MoMo Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) partnering with Thunes to enable instant inbound international transfers into Nigerian wallets is bigger than a Nigeria-only story. It’s a blueprint—especially for Ghana, where mobile money is already the default rails for daily payments, but cross-border money movement still too often feels like paperwork.

The deal matters for one reason: speed plus reach equals usage. MoMo PSB is plugging into a network that supports real-time transfers across 130+ countries and 80+ currencies, and it’s doing it through the channel that normal people actually use every day—their wallet. For Ghana’s fintech ecosystem (and for anyone building in our “AI ne Fintech: Sɛnea Akɔntabuo ne Mobile Money Rehyɛ Ghana den” series), this is the signal: cross-border payments won’t be won by flashy apps. They’ll be won by partnerships, compliance muscle, and automation—much of it AI-driven.

Below, I’ll break down what the MoMo–Thunes partnership really enables, why it’s strategically smart, and the practical lessons Ghanaian fintechs, banks, and aggregators can apply right now—especially if your goal is better customer experience and more leads.

What the MoMo–Thunes partnership actually changes

Answer first: It turns international remittances into a near-instant wallet event, not a multi-step process.

MoMo PSB’s partnership with Thunes is designed to let users receive money from major corridors—USA, UK, Canada, France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and South Africa—directly into MoMo wallets “instantly.” That word matters. When inbound transfers are fast and predictable, people stop treating remittances like occasional emergencies and start using them as working money.

This is not just “send money home.” It’s: money arrives → wallet balance updates → the user can immediately:

• buy airtime and data
• pay bills
• transfer to family
• pay merchants
• transact online

MoMo PSB also gets a major distribution advantage: it reportedly has about 2.7 million users in Nigeria, and it’s attaching international inflows to a wallet that already has daily utility.

Why inbound remittances are the most strategic starting point

Answer first: Inbound remittances are the cleanest growth lever because demand already exists and the user value is obvious.

Cross-border payments can be messy: outbound transfers trigger tighter FX scrutiny, fraud pressure, and more consumer risk. Inbound flows are simpler to position and regulate, and the customer benefit is immediate.

The World Bank reported Nigeria’s remittance inflows rose 9% in 2024 to $20.9 billion. Even if you ignore every other fintech trend, that number tells you why wallets want remittance pipes.

For Ghana, the parallels are strong: diaspora flows are meaningful, but the customer experience often gets stuck at “go and cash out” or “wait and confirm.” A wallet-native inbound rail reduces friction and keeps value inside the digital ecosystem.

The hidden product here is “reliability”

Answer first: Customers don’t fall in love with cross-border payments—they fall in love with transfers that don’t fail.

Most companies get this wrong. They pitch cross-border like it’s a fancy feature. Users care about three things:

1. Will it arrive?
2. How long will it take?
3. What will it cost me (including hidden fees)?

Thunes’ “Direct Global Network” connects wallets, neobanks, and financial institutions and claims reach into 7+ billion wallets, 15+ billion cards, and 320+ payment methods globally (including well-known mobile money and wallet brands). That scale isn’t marketing fluff—it’s operational coverage.

When you connect to a mature network, you’re buying:

• better routing options (fewer failed transactions)
• standardized settlement processes
• predictable reconciliation
• mature compliance tooling

This matters because cross-border payments are a trust business. One failed transfer can send a customer back to informal channels.

Where AI fits: automation that reduces “payment anxiety”

Answer first: AI makes cross-border payments feel instant by removing the back-office delays users never see.

In our topic series—AI ne Fintech—the biggest win isn’t “AI in the app.” It’s AI behind the scenes:

• Smart routing: selecting the best corridor/path to reduce failure rates
• Anomaly detection: spotting unusual patterns before fraud losses happen
• Auto-reconciliation: matching inbound settlement files to wallet credits faster
• KYC/AML triage: prioritizing reviews and reducing false positives

The customer only experiences one thing: the money lands when it’s supposed to.

If you’re building in Ghana, this is the angle that wins in the market: use AI to make reliability boring.

What Ghana can copy—and what Ghana should avoid

Answer first: Copy the partnership model and the wallet-first approach; avoid building cross-border as a standalone feature without ops depth.

Ghana’s mobile money ecosystem is advanced, but cross-border often suffers from fragmented rails and uneven user experience. The MoMo–Thunes move suggests a practical roadmap.

1) Partner for reach, don’t “build reach” one corridor at a time

Corridor-by-corridor integrations are slow and fragile. Network partnerships are faster because they give you coverage across many sending markets.

For Ghanaian fintech operators, the lesson is simple: distribution is not just agents and merchants—it’s also international corridors.

What to do:

• Prioritize a partner strategy that covers your top diaspora markets.
• Negotiate clear SLAs around speed, failure rates, and dispute handling.
• Design your product around “inbound-to-wallet” first, then branch to outbound.

2) Treat compliance as product, not paperwork

Cross-border expansion forces your compliance maturity to show. If your KYC is inconsistent, your fraud controls weak, or your dispute process unclear, growth will hurt.

AI can help here, but policy comes first.

What to do in Ghana:

• Define “acceptable risk” per corridor (different sending markets behave differently).
• Use AI risk scoring to reduce manual review load.
• Build transparent customer messaging: status updates, expected time, and clear fees.

3) Design for “use the money immediately”

Instant receipt is only half the story. The real adoption comes when users can spend or move the funds easily.

In practical terms, this means:

• strong bill pay integrations
• merchant payment acceptance
• airtime/data top-ups
• wallet-to-bank transfers

If Ghanaian wallets want to compete for remittance inflows, they need to ensure the wallet is not just a holding place—it’s a daily operating account.

A practical playbook for Ghanaian fintech teams (and growth leads)

Answer first: If you want leads from cross-border payments, sell outcomes: speed, certainty, and control.

Cross-border payments attracts three customer segments in Ghana that convert well when messaging is specific:

1. Diaspora senders and their families (predictable monthly support)
2. SMEs receiving international payments (freelancers, exporters, online sellers)
3. Gig workers and creators (platform payouts, brand deals, tips)

Here’s what works when you’re turning this into a pipeline.

Messaging that converts (without hype)

Use language customers already use:

• “Receive money from abroad directly into your mobile money wallet.”
• “Get paid faster for freelance work.”
• “Know exactly what you’ll receive before you confirm.”
• “Track your transfer from sent to received.”

Avoid vague promises. Cross-border is where vague claims die.

Product checklist: features that reduce support tickets

If you want growth and sane operations, build these early:

• Real-time transfer status (sent, in processing, paid out)
• Transparent fee and FX disclosure before confirmation
• Name matching to reduce wrong-recipient incidents
• Automated exception handling (AI triage + human escalation)
• Instant receipts and downloadable statements

Operational checklist: what breaks first

Cross-border systems fail in predictable places:

• reconciliation delays that cause “missing funds” complaints
• chargeback/dispute workflows that are unclear
• agent/merchant cash-out pressure (liquidity)
• fraud spikes during peak seasons

Christmas week is a perfect example. In late December, inbound remittances typically surge as families support travel, school expenses, and end-of-year obligations. If your systems can’t handle seasonal load, customers won’t “try again next time.” They’ll switch.

People also ask: “Does instant remittance mean cheaper?”

Answer first: Not automatically—speed can raise costs, but competition and automation push prices down.

Instant or real-time remittance can be more expensive if:

• more intermediaries take a fee
• FX spreads are hidden
• compliance processes are manual

But when a wallet connects to a network and automates the back office (AI for reconciliation, risk scoring, and routing), providers can reduce operational costs and pass some savings to customers. The win is not just “lower fees.” It’s fewer failed transfers, fewer disputes, and less time wasted.

What this signals for “AI ne Fintech” in Ghana

Answer first: The next wave in Ghana isn’t another wallet—it’s wallets that behave like full financial infrastructure.

MoMo PSB joining a global network shows where African fintech is going: wallets are becoming endpoints of the global financial system, not local side projects. And AI is the practical tool that makes that scale manageable—especially when you’re handling compliance, fraud, and customer support across borders.

If you’re building, investing, or running growth for a Ghana-based fintech, take a stance: cross-border is not optional if you want to serve modern customers. The question is whether you’ll approach it as a partnership-led infrastructure play, with automation at the core—or as a small feature your team maintains with manual workarounds.

Where do you want your product to be by next December: still explaining delays, or confidently saying, “Your money is already in your wallet”?