Who pays the MoMo charge? Here’s the honest answer.

The short version

There are three ways money gets from a customer’s MoMo wallet to you, and each one is charged differently:

1. They send it to your personal number. A transfer between two wallets. The sender pays the network’s transfer charge, and you pay again when you cash out.
2. They pay a merchant number. Networks’ merchant services, like MTN MoMo Pay, charge the business a fee on what it collects.
3. They approve a prompt from your till. A payment company collects it and pays it out to you. That’s what Tabworthy does, through Paystack, for 2.95% in all.

Whichever you use, the question isn’t whether there’s a charge. It’s who carries it, and whether you know what actually landed.

Why the customer usually carries it

In Ghana it’s normal for the person paying to cover the charge, the same as they would sending money to family. Most customers expect it, and a business that quietly absorbs 2 to 3% on every MoMo sale is giving away a good part of its margin on food that already runs thin.

That doesn’t mean you should never carry it. Some businesses do for regulars, or on big orders where it keeps the customer happy. What matters is that it’s a decision, not an accident.

What the customer sees

With Tabworthy, the charge is on the prompt before anybody approves it. On a ₵20.00 bill your customer sees ₵20.00 + ₵0.61 charge, approves ₵20.61, and the whole ₵20.00 lands with you. Nobody is surprised, and there’s nothing to explain at the counter.

If you switch it so you carry the charge, they’re asked for exactly ₵20.00 and ₵19.41 lands with you. The calculator above works it out for any bill.

The bill	Customer carries it: they approve	Lands with you	You carry it: lands with you
₵10.00	₵10.31	₵10.00	₵9.70
₵20.00	₵20.61	₵20.00	₵19.41
₵50.00	₵51.52	₵50.00	₵48.52
₵100.00	₵103.04	₵100.00	₵97.05
₵250.00	₵257.60	₵250.00	₵242.62

The E-Levy is gone

The Electronic Transfer Levy was abolished from 2 April 2025. If a customer asks whether “the e-levy” is in the charge, it isn’t: there’s no government levy on a MoMo payment any more. What they pay is the payment company’s charge, and nothing else.

What to write down at the end of the day

Whatever way you take MoMo, the figure that matters is what landed, not what was rung up. At closing, look at three numbers side by side:

• what the day’s MoMo sales came to,
• what arrived in the wallet or account,
• and the difference, which should be the charges and nothing more.

If you keep a notebook, give MoMo its own column. The daily sales record has one you can print. If you use Tabworthy, the report shows MoMo apart from cash, and the Payouts screen shows which sales each payout covered.

Watch for the screenshot

The most expensive MoMo charge isn’t a percentage. It’s the payment that never came: a screenshot of an old transfer, a forwarded message, “I’ve sent it” to a number that isn’t yours. How to tell a fake MoMo alert covers the ways it happens and how to set up your counter so nobody has to check.