Hubtel welcomed representatives from Business & Financial Times (B&FT) on Thursday, 17 September 2026, for discussions on how both organisations can work together to support business growth, strengthen digital adoption, and create new opportunities for businesses and consumers. 

The B&FT delegation was led by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr Godwin Acquaye, and included Stephen Dotse, Business Development Manager, Charles Ekow Atkings, Event Manager, and Meimuna Diakite, Human Resources Manager. Hubtel was represented by Jonathan Ansah, Chief Finance Officer, Ernest Apenteng, General Manager, and Nana Owusu-Marfo, Head of Brand and User Experience. 

The meeting focused on opportunities for collaboration across media, business engagement, thought leadership, digital innovation, and other areas of mutual interest. 

Moving beyond visibility 

The conversation also focused on how a potential partnership could support Hubtel’s broader business objectives, particularly in reaching the right audiences, creating opportunities for engagement, and driving greater awareness and adoption of digital solutions. 

We shared that any potential collaboration should have clear objectives and measurable results. This could include reaching specific business audiences, supporting customer acquisition, encouraging digital adoption, or improving awareness of solutions that can help businesses operate more efficiently. 

READ ALSO: https://news.hubtel.com/hubtel-pk-amoabeng-foundation-youth-leadership-partnership/

The discussion also highlighted the importance of choosing platforms and opportunities based on the audiences they reach and the outcomes they can deliver. 

Connecting with the business community 

B&FT shared perspectives on its work across media, business events, industry engagement, and platforms that bring together business leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders. 

The teams explored how these audiences could create opportunities for Hubtel to engage with businesses and professionals, particularly around technology, digital payments, and solutions that support business growth. 

There was also interest in creating more direct ways for businesses and customers to engage with digital solutions, while keeping the focus on practical value and meaningful business outcomes. 

READ ALSO: https://news.hubtel.com/hubtel-official-technology-partner-momo-fintech-lab/

Creating opportunities for digital adoption 

The conversation also touched on how technology can help businesses operate more easily and serve their customers better. 

We shared how our work has expanded from SMS and content services into digital payments and technology solutions that support businesses across different sectors. 

Both teams discussed opportunities to encourage greater adoption of digital solutions among businesses and to create more awareness around the tools available to help them grow and serve their customers. 

The discussions also considered how business-focused platforms and engagements could help introduce entrepreneurs and SMEs to relevant technology and payment solutions. 

Exploring opportunities for collaboration 

The meeting also covered opportunities for Hubtel to engage with B&FT’s wider media and business ecosystem, including its various platforms and industry-focused initiatives. 

Rather than focusing on a single channel or activity, the conversation looked at how both organisations could bring their respective strengths together to create useful opportunities for businesses, share practical insights, and contribute to conversations around technology and business growth. 

Potential areas of collaboration included business and industry conversations, thought leadership, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion. 

The teams also discussed opportunities across B&FT’s media and digital platforms that could support these conversations and provide space for Hubtel’s leadership and teams to share practical perspectives. 

The engagement forms part of ongoing discussions between Hubtel and B&FT, with both organisations exploring areas where their respective platforms, expertise, and audiences can create value for the wider business community. 

Hubtel settlement times are straightforward once you know what’s happening behind the scenes. Settlement is what happens the moment a customer pays a Hubtel merchant: the money moves into that merchant’s own Hubtel account.  

The customer is debited instantly, and you see that reflected on your dashboard right away. However, the movement of that payment to your Hubtel merchant account happens within the hour. Not a day or two, your money is made available to you every hour after taking payments.  

Once the money has settled into your Hubtel account, you have full control of it. Whether it’s moving it to your own bank account or Mobile Money wallet, paying suppliers or employees, or simply leaving it there until you need it.  

What Settlement Actually Means 

Settlement is simply the step where a customer’s payment becomes yours. That means the money received from your customers, credited to your Hubtel account. In the process of settlement, two different things happen at two different speeds: 

• The debit is instant: The moment a customer pays, whether by Mobile Money, card, or bank transfer, their payment is confirmed and you’ll see it reflected on your dashboard right away. 

• The settlement is hourly: Your Hubtel account balance is credited on an hourly basis. So even though the debit shows up straight away, the money isn’t actually in your balance yet, until that hourly settlement runs. 

To cite an instance, a customer buys GHS 200 of goods from your shop and pays you by Mobile Money. The moment they pay, a confirmation shows on your dashboard, that’s the debit, telling you the payment went through. By the next hour, that GHS 200 is credited to your Hubtel account balance, readily accessible to you. 

Hence, a debit notification is not the same as a balance credit. These two are easy to confuse, since they can look identical from the merchant’s side, but they’re different moments. Debit notification is instant while Settlement is hourly. 

Why Settling Fast Actually Matters 

Many payment platforms only give merchants one moment of “getting paid”: the batch settlement, usually done days after the sale. With Hubtel’s hourly settlement;  

• You know a sale went through the moment it happens, not days later. 

• Your money is usable almost immediately, rather than tied up until a distant batch date. 

• Reconciliation is simpler, because payments land in your account continuously rather than arriving in one delayed batch you have to match up later. 

• Settlement doesn’t stop for weekends or public holidays. It runs every hour, every day, so a sale on a Saturday or a public holiday settle the same way a weekday sale does. 

Ready to put this to work? Sign up as a Hubtel merchant at business.hubtel.com. It takes a few minutes and you’ll be set up to collect Mobile Money, card, bank payments and GHQR.   

A Quick Note on Two Other Terms You’ll See 

Your Hubtel account distinguishes different types of money movement, and it’s worth knowing them so nothing on your dashboard is confusing. 

• Payout is when you pay money out of your Hubtel account to someone else, a supplier or an employee, into their Mobile Money number or bank account. 

• Sweep is when you move money from your Hubtel account into your own bank account or Mobile Money wallet. 

Both are things you choose to do, on your own schedule, once settlement has already put the money in your Hubtel account. Neither holds up settlement, and they both move quickly. Recent data across 124,163 sweeps over a 46-day period showed money reaching the destination account in about 33 seconds on average, with 94% settling in under a minute. 

How Hubtel Settlement Times Compare to Other Ghana Payment Gateways 

It helps to see this next to what other payment gateways in Ghana do, specifically, how long it takes before your money is genuinely available to you. 

Major payment platforms push merchant funds to your bank account on a fixed next-business-day (T+1) basis, so your money isn’t fully available to you until that automatic transfer lands, up to a full business day after the sale. Hubtel settles into your account within an hour. This means your money is made available to you about 96% faster than a full 24-hour wait most payment gateways do.  

Start Getting Paid This Way 

Settlement doesn’t have to be a long wait, and on Hubtel it isn’t one. The moment a customer pays you, that money is already yours, sitting in your Hubtel account within the hour at the latest. 

That clarity is the point. You always know exactly where your money is and what stage it’s at, instead of guessing whether a payment has “gone through” somewhere out of sight.  

Because settlement puts the money in your hands fast, you’re in control of what happens next, whether that’s a payout, a sweep, or just letting it sit, rather than working around someone else’s schedule. 

That kind of control adds up to something bigger than convenience. It is room to grow. Money that’s usable within the hour is money you can put straight back into your business, restocking, paying staff, settling a supplier, on the same day it comes in, rather than a day or more later.  

If cash flow is something you think about daily rather than monthly, that’s the practical benefit worth remembering. You’re never waiting a full business day to find out if you got paid. 

If you run a business in Ghana and want your money working for you the moment a customer pays, sign up as a Hubtel merchant at business.hubtel.com. It takes a few minutes to get started, and you’ll be set up to collect Mobile Money, card, bank payments and GHQR. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

How long does it take for a payment to settle on Hubtel? Settlement happens within the hour. The moment a customer pays, the debit is confirmed instantly and shows on your dashboard right away, but your Hubtel account balance itself is credited on the hour, every hour, so the money is fully settled and ready to use within an hour of the sale at most. 

Why does the payment show on my dashboard before my balance updates? What you’re seeing instantly is the debit, confirmation that the customer’s payment went through. That’s not the same moment as settlement. Your Hubtel account balance is credited separately, on the hour, every hour, so there can be up to an hour between seeing the payment notification and the money actually being in your usable balance. 

What’s the difference between settlement, payout, and sweep? Settlement is when a customer’s payment lands in your Hubtel account. Payout is when you send money from your Hubtel account to someone else, like a supplier or employee. Sweep is when you move money from your Hubtel account into your own bank account or Mobile Money wallet. Settlement happens first and fast; payout and sweep are things you choose to do afterwards, on your own schedule. 

Can I pay suppliers or staff directly from my Hubtel account? Yes, that’s called a payout. Once a payment has settled into your Hubtel account, you can pay it out directly to a supplier’s or employee’s Mobile Money number or bank account, without first sweeping it to your own account. 

Why does my money show as “settled” in Hubtel before it’s in my bank account? Because settlement and a sweep to your own bank are two different steps. Settlement, money landing in your Hubtel account, happens fast, by design. Sweeping that money on to your own bank account is a separate step you trigger afterwards. 

Does Hubtel settle payments on weekends or public holidays? Yes. Settlement happens on weekends and public holidays too, not just business days — this applies across all regions of Ghana, including times when banks are closed. A sale made over the weekend still settles into your Hubtel account within the hour, rather than waiting until Monday. 

Can I choose when my money moves to my bank or Mobile Money wallet? Yes. Once your money has settled, you can sweep it to your own bank account or Mobile Money wallet whenever you like using the Transfer Money button on your dashboard, or automate transfers on a schedule you set in the Money section of your Hubtel BackOffice. Bank transfers have a minimum of GHS 500, while Mobile Money transfers can be any amount.

On Thursday, 10 September 2026, Hubtel welcomed representatives from Nova Business School Africa (NBSA) for a conversation about digital entrepreneurship, business growth, and the opportunities technology can create for African businesses. 

The courtesy visit gave both teams a chance to learn about each other’s work, share experiences, and explore possible areas of collaboration. 

Leading the NBSA delegation was Prof. Mathew Tsamenyi, President and CEO, who was accompanied by Georgia Ansah, Programmes Manager, Mary Brown, Marketing Consultant, and Israel Agbeti, Head of Sales & Business Development.

The conversation was hosted by Hubtel’s General Manager, Ernest Apenteng, alongside Jonathan Ansah, Chief Finance Officer, Augustine Adjei, Head of Engineering and Bill Inkoom, Head of Mobile App Engineering.

At the centre of the engagement was The Africa Digital Entrepreneurship Programme (TADEP), delivered in partnership with the Alibaba Global Initiative (AGI) in China. 

Connecting education with real business experience 

The NBSA team shared its vision of building a business school for Africa, from Ghana, focused on developing leaders, supporting business growth, and creating impact through education, research, and advisory services. Digital transformation and innovation sit at the core of that work. 

The conversation also turned to the value of grounding teaching in real business experience. Rather than relying only on theories and examples that feel far removed from everyday business, the participants discussed the importance of practical, relatable case studies that show how businesses solve problems and grow. 

That drew the discussion to our own experience building digital payment solutions and services for businesses and customers. 

READ ALSO: Hubtel Leadership Visit Amazon’s Global HQ to Deepen Data, AI Collaboration

Making digital solutions work for businesses 

We shared our experience building payment solutions for businesses, banks, and retailers, and how those tools make everyday transactions easier and more accessible. 

The discussion also touched on the role of technology in helping businesses run with greater transparency and in widening access to services. 

For smaller businesses in particular, digital tools can create opportunities to reach more customers, manage transactions, and take part in the wider digital economy. 

Beyond payments, we discussed our work across other sectors, including transport and logistics. 

Inside the Africa Digital Entrepreneurship Programme 

A major part of the visit was NBSA’s presentation on TADEP. 

The programme is designed to help entrepreneurs and businesses learn how to use technology to grow. 

The NBSA team shared details of its work with Alibaba and how participants gain exposure to that wider business ecosystem. 

This includes learning about areas such as e-commerce, payments, logistics, and other digital services that support business growth. 

The programme also creates opportunities for participants to connect with entrepreneurs from other African countries, building relationships and learning from markets beyond their own. 

Businesses looking to expand can also request customised programmes built around their own needs and areas of interest. 

The presentation highlighted the value of connecting African businesses to knowledge, technology, and networks that can help them compete and grow in a changing digital economy. 

Learning from each other 

The NBSA team spoke about its entrepreneurship programmes in Ghana, including one run with MTN to support SME customers. 

The 13-week programme takes a practical, activity-based approach, with participants working on projects that show how they can apply technology and business knowledge to real situations. 

Participants include women, young people, and established business leaders. 

The discussion also explored the importance of helping businesses think beyond their immediate markets and consider opportunities across Africa. 

For us, these conversations were a chance to share lessons from building solutions for businesses and customers, while learning more about how entrepreneurship education can support business growth. 

Possible areas of collaboration 

As the visit progressed, the conversation moved to areas where the two organisations could work together. 

The teams discussed opportunities around staff capability, executive development, and access to relevant learning programmes. 

Both sides were also interested in how their networks and expertise could create more opportunities for businesses and professionals. 

NBSA agreed to send further information on its programmes and possible areas of collaboration. 

The teams also discussed an upcoming webinar on digital assets and artificial intelligence, to which our managers and staff were invited. 

A conversation with room to grow 

The courtesy visit was a reminder of the value of bringing together organisations with different experiences but shared interests. 

For us, it was an opportunity to engage with an institution focused on leadership and entrepreneurship development, while sharing some of the lessons from our work in digital services. 

For Nova Business School Africa, it was a chance to learn more about our work and explore how its programmes could connect with the needs of businesses and professionals. 

As both teams continue to explore areas of collaboration, the visit marked a useful starting point for conversations around learning, innovation, and the growth of African businesses. 

CEO of Hubtel, Alex Bram has donated a new police station to Dokrochiwa, the Eastern Region village where he grew up, built on the same land where his grandfather sold cocoa beans to help pay for his education.

The station, in the Ayensuano District, was commissioned on Thursday, September 3, at a ceremony attended by traditional leaders, senior police officers, local government officials and residents.

Despite the joy of the people of Dokrochiwa at the gesture, Alex Bram will not call it a donation.

“This police station is not a donation. It is a dividend,” he told the gathering.

The distinction rests on the ground under the building.

“Today is a huge day for all of us. It’s as big as when this village got it’s first school, first electricity connection, or first tarred road.” he said. “Where this police station is built today is also a special place because it was where many farmers gathered to sell their cocoa beans to make a living some decades ago.”

That farm is where his own story starts. His grandfather, Daniel Kwaku Bram, was among the cocoa farmers who worked the lands around Dokrochiwa, and the family’s registration with the Ghana Cocoa Board through the farm later opened the way for a cocoa scholarship. It carried Alex Bram through St. Augustine’s College, then to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and eventually into technology and entrepreneurship. The community, in his telling, invested first. The station is what it has earned.

READ ALSO: Hubtel Pledge Supports St. Augustine’s College, in APSU ‘99 Legacy Project 

He recalled a Dokrochiwa of limited infrastructure, where a school and a few churches were the notable landmarks. Electricity, a market, water and roads followed over the years, changing how residents lived and worked.

“And so, today is a great day,” he said. “It brings back that joy of having each of these critical infrastructures. It is also a befitting reminder of the hard work and sacrifices that our grandparents put in to get us here. We must let that same spirit guide us to strive to do more for our communities.”

“An investment in peace” 

Local leaders welcomed the facility. Josephine Awuley Ansaa Inkoom, former District Chief Executive for Ayensuano, called it a significant contribution to the town, pointing to the role security plays in protecting residents, maintaining order and supporting growth.

The current District Chief Executive, Joshua Yaw Frederick Lartey, said he had supported the accompanying police bungalow with 50 bags of cement, along with sand for the barracks. He described the project as “an investment in peace”, saying it represented hope, security and continued development for Dokrochiwa.

DCOP Charles Kofi Adu, the Regional Police Commander, commended the initiative and urged residents to work with the Ghana Police Service rather than take the law into their own hands. He also asked young people to take their education and personal development seriously, noting that the choices they make now shape what they are able to give back later. 

Ogyeahoho Barima Anom I, chief of Dokrochiwa and Benkumhene of Kyebi Apapam, thanked the family of D.K Bram, Mr. Moses Bram Adjei and his son Alex Bram for the project and said he hoped residents would live in harmony with the officers posted to the town.

“This is our own” 

Alex Bram asked residents to protect the facility and to support the officers who will work there.

“This is our own,” he said. 

For a town whose history is bound up with the cocoa farms that once shaped the area, the station is another marker in a long process of development. For Alex Bram, it is a return to the ground where his story began, and a chance to add something to the one Dokrochiwa is still writing.

“I want to build young people who are better than me.” It is not a statement you expect from someone who built one of Ghana’s most successful financial institutions from the ground up. But for Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng (Rtd.), founder of UT Bank, author, and now the driving force behind the PK Amoabeng Leadership Foundation, it is the clearest expression of where his ambitions now lie not in rebuilding what he lost, but in multiplying what he learned. 

On Thursday, August 27, Capt. Amoabeng brought that conviction to Hubtel’s offices in Accra for a leadership engagement that ended with Hubtel committing GH₵200,000 to the Foundation and both organisations exploring a deeper partnership in entrepreneurship, innovation and youth leadership development in Ghana. 

The visit brought Capt. Amoabeng together with Hubtel’s leadership, including CEO Alex Bram, General Manager Ernest Appenteng, Head of Brand and User Experience Nana Owusu-Marfo, and members of the Hubtel team. 

From the Collapse of UT Bank to a New Purpose: The PK Amoabeng Leadership Foundation 

What do you do when the thing you spent years building comes to an end? 

For Capt. Amoabeng, the answer was not to simply rebuild what was lost. It was to use what he had learned to build something new. 

Reflecting on the collapse of UT Bank during Ghana’s banking sector cleanup in 2017, Capt. Amoabeng shared how the experience led him to writing and eventually to establishing the PK Amoabeng Leadership Foundation. His philosophy is captured in his own words: “I want to bounce forward, not bounce back.” 

The Foundation’s vision is to revolutionise the mindset of the African leader, with a mission to deliver strategic and transformational leadership programmes that develop ethical, innovative and patriotic leaders for Ghana and Africa. 

Through its flagship PK Amoabeng Scholars Programme, the Foundation provides young people with mentorship, leadership workshops, military-style training, job shadowing, entrepreneurship development and access to experienced leaders. 

Its impact is already significant. Forty scholars have graduated from its first two cohorts; a third cohort is currently in progress, and a fourth is being recruited. More than 5,000 students across five schools have also been reached through the Foundation’s wider engagements across Ghana. 

For Capt. Amoabeng, the ambition is to multiply that impact far beyond what he has done alone. “I want to build young people who are better than me,” he said. “If I can create 10, 50, 100 more of myself, we can have 10, 50, 100 UT stories.” 

How Capt. Amoabeng’s Leadership Lessons Helped Shape Hubtel CEO Alex Bram 

The visit also brought to the surface a connection that predates the formal engagement. 

Capt. Amoabeng and Hubtel CEO Alex Bram first interacted in 2017, when Capt. Amoabeng shared some of his experience and leadership lessons with Alex. That conversation, Alex shared, became useful in his own approach to managing and growing Hubtel, creating a direct link between Capt. Amoabeng’s experience and part of Hubtel’s own growth story in Ghana’s fintech sector. 

It was a fitting reflection of the very principle behind the Foundation: that knowledge gained through experience becomes more valuable when it is passed on. 

Hubtel Commits GH₵200,000 to the PK Amoabeng Leadership Foundation 

As a tangible expression of its commitment to youth and leadership development in Ghana, Hubtel supported the PK Amoabeng Leadership Foundation with GH₵200,000 towards its ongoing programmes. 

The contribution aligns with Hubtel’s broader responsibility as a Ghanaian technology company, one that serves millions of businesses and individuals, to invest in the people and institutions that will shape the country’s future. 

Capt. Amoabeng also shared a principle that has guided his thinking about service: when helping people, think about how to save them time and make them feel good. It is a simple idea, but one that connected naturally with Hubtel’s own focus on using technology to make every day experiences simpler for people and businesses across Ghana. 

Technology, AI and What a Hubtel–Foundation Partnership Could Look Like 

The discussion also touched on the role of technology in creating opportunities for Ghana’s next generation of leaders. 

Hubtel shared its work through the Hubtel AI Lab, which explores practical applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This opened conversations around how emerging technology could intersect with leadership development, equipping young Ghanaians not just with business and leadership skills but with the digital literacy to operate in an AI-driven economy. 

The two organisations also explored the possibility of Hubtel contributing employee time to the Foundation through its 1% employee-time commitment, potentially bringing professional skills, mentorship and hands-on experience directly into the Foundation’s scholar programmes. 

The visit ended with a shared interest in exploring what can happen when experience, technology and people come together in service of Ghana’s development. 

For Capt. Amoabeng, the journey has moved from building a financial institution, through experiencing its collapse, to investing what he learned in the people who will build what comes next. And perhaps that is the real meaning behind his ambition: not to build another version of himself, but to build people who can become better than him. 

About Hubtel 

Hubtel is a Ghanaian technology company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Accra, Ghana. The company provides payment processing solutions for merchants, including in-store and online payments, transaction tracking, and revenue growth tools. Hubtel serves businesses and institutions across sectors including retail, education, healthcare, and the public sector. Its consumer services span payments, bills, and food delivery. Hubtel also operates an AI Lab focused on exploring and developing practical applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in Ghana. 

Ghana’s leading fintech and digital payments company, Hubtel, is lending its support to Mobile Money Fintech Limited (MMFL) to discover, develop and accelerate the growth of the next generation of fintech innovators in Ghana.  

Hubtel will be the Official Technology Partner of the 2026 MoMo Fintech Lab, a national initiative designed to give fintech innovators a major boost. 

The programme was officially launched on 12 August 2026 at the Accra Marriott Hotel with four senior executives of Hubtel; Nana Owusu-Marfo, Head of Brand and User Experience; Francis Wilson, Head of Infrastructure and Payments; Patrick Asare-Frimpong, Head of Product Management; and Augustine Gyawu Adjei, Head of Engineering, in attendance along with other industry leaders, innovators, technology companies and other stakeholders. 

The three-month MoMo Fintech Lab will provide emerging fintech talent with opportunities to develop their ideas through hackathons, mentorship and incubation support, culminating in a national Demo Day.

The programme will run across three zones, Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, with a focus on creating opportunities for innovators both within and beyond the capital. 

As Official Technology Partner, Hubtel will bring its experience in payments, technology and product development to a programme focused on turning promising ideas into practical solutions for Ghana’s digital economy.  a

“Ghana has never been short of good fintech ideas. What has been missing is the route from an idea to something that works at scale, and that route is easier to walk when someone who has already walked it is standing beside you. That is what we are offering the innovators in this programme,” said Nana Owusu-Marfo, Head of Brand and User Experience at Hubtel. 

The launch was attended by the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, who highlighted the importance of developing homegrown financial technology solutions and called on investors and industry stakeholders to remain engaged with emerging ventures beyond the programme’s final Demo Day. 

“You can’t be treating tech startups the way you treat an industrial business,” he said, arguing that technology businesses need patient capital. 

Speaking at the launch, MMFL Chief Executive Officer Shaibu Haruna described the MoMo Fintech Lab as a long-term commitment to developing Ghana’s fintech ecosystem an ambition Hubtel shares. 

“For us to build an inclusive digital economy, we need everybody and every talent to come on board,” he said.  

READ ALSO: Hubtel Empowers Next Generation Through AI Education Partnership with Brainwave AfricaTech 

Building Ghana’s fintech future together 

Hubtel’s support of the MoMo Fintech Lab is in furtherance of its commitment to the Ghana fintech and technology space and its belief that the country’s digital economy will be shaped as much by collaboration between established digital companies as it will be by innovators. 

By sharing its experience and expertise with emerging innovators, Hubtel hopes to help create an environment where promising fintech ideas can move beyond concepts and develop into solutions that address real challenges and create meaningful value for businesses and consumers. 

About Hubtel 

Hubtel is a Ghanaian technology company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Accra. The company provides payment processing solutions for merchants, including in-store and online payments, transaction tracking, and revenue growth. 

Hubtel serves businesses and institutions across sectors including retail, education, healthcare, and the public sector. Its consumer services also span payments, bills, and food delivery. 

Seattle, USA – July 2026 

Hubtel’s full Board of Directors and executive leadership spent two days at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Executive Briefing Center in Seattle on 9 and 10 July, in a series of specialist sessions on data strategy, artificial intelligence, resilience, and security for financial services. 

The delegation was led by the Chairperson of the Board, Patience Akyianu, and included Chief Executive Officer Alex Bram, General Manager Ernest Apenteng, all members of the Board of Directors, and every Head of Department in the company. It is rare for an organisation to bring its complete governance and executive leadership to a technology partner’s headquarters, a signal of how central data and AI have become to Hubtel’s next chapter. 

The aim of the sessions was to move Hubtel’s relationship with AWS beyond hosting infrastructure toward close, ongoing collaboration on the data and AI capabilities the company plans to build next, capabilities that will directly shape how fast, secure, and reliable digital payments and commerce are for millions of people and businesses in Ghana. 

Inside the sessions 

The programme ran for two days. The first day was about innovation culture, AI strategy, and the practical application of AI in financial services. Amanda Leigh Henke opened the first day with a session on Amazon’s culture of innovation, how one of the world’s largest technology companies sustains invention and experimentation at scale. Peter Whitney, Business Innovation Advisor, then led two sessions for the leadership team: the first on AI strategy and execution for business leaders, and the second on machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI in financial services, connecting the technology directly to the work of running a payments business. Willie Lee, Senior Worldwide Specialist for GenAI, closed the first day with a session on agentic AI and how it is unlocking the next era of AI-powered automation. 

The second day focused on data foundations, resilience, and security. François Chevallier, Principal Worldwide Data and GenAI Strategist, opened the day with a session on how the world’s leading digital platforms turn data into measurable value rather than simply storing it, a theme that ran through the rest of the programme. Paul Meighan, Director for S3 and Analytics Product Management, and Alex Wurm, Senior Product Manager, led the executive data-leadership sessions that followed, examining how modern data foundations are designed, governed, and scaled. 

The programme then turned to the discipline of running a payments business safely at national scale. John Formento, Principal for Partner Management and External Services, covered resilience for enterprise operations, the engineering practices that keep critical services available at all times, for all services, to all customers. Geoff Sweet, Senior Security Strategy Solutions Architect, walked the team through protecting financial workloads on AWS, the track with the most direct bearing on Hubtel’s day-to-day responsibilities as an operator of payment infrastructure relied upon across Ghana. 

Leo Ohannesian, Principal Product Manager-Tech, closed the programme with a live demonstration of the AI-powered productivity tools AWS is building for large digital finance platforms, a preview of how agentic AI is reshaping knowledge work inside one of the world’s most sophisticated technology companies. 

A session with the former NASA JPL CTO 

A highlight of the visit was a session with Tom Soderstrom, AWS Executive in Residence and a former Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at NASA, where he spent 14 years leading the technology behind some of humanity’s most ambitious missions of exploration. 

Drawing on decades at the frontier of both space exploration and enterprise technology, Soderstrom challenged the Hubtel leadership team on innovation culture: how organisations build a genuine culture of experimentation, how leaders make bold technology bets while managing risk, and how speed and adaptability, not size, determine which companies define the next decade. His session left a deep impression on the leadership team, and its themes echoed through the rest of the visit: if a culture of disciplined experimentation can land a rover on Mars, it can certainly transform how commerce works in Ghana. 

AWS and Hubtel 

Amazon Web Services is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, powering millions of customers from the fastest-growing startups to the largest enterprises and leading government agencies from data centres across the globe. It is also the infrastructure behind many modern financial services, trusted by banks, payment networks, and fintech platforms worldwide for security, resilience, and scale. 

Hubtel, founded in Accra in 2005, has grown from a messaging company into the platform at the centre of everyday commerce in Ghana — one app for consumers to pay, shop, and borrow, and one platform through which businesses, banks, and government institutions collect payments, sell, and deliver. Its services span consumer payments, business and merchant services, quick commerce delivery, transactional credit, and government revenue collection, supported by a national operating footprint and a team of roughly 660 people. 

Hubtel has built on AWS infrastructure for years. What the Executive Briefing Center engagement in Seattle marks is the evolution of that relationship: from customer and cloud provider to strategic collaborators working together on data, AI, resilience, and security, with AWS’s specialist teams now directly engaged with Hubtel’s leadership beyond the standard vendor relationship. For AWS, Hubtel represents the kind of ambitious, engineering-led African platform shaping the continent’s digital economy. For Hubtel, AWS offers a direct line to the practices and tools that define the global standard. 

READ ALSO: Hubtel’s Success Story Becomes the First from Ghana to Be Highlighted by Amazon Web Services

Where Hubtel is headed 

Speaking about the trip, Alex Bram tied it to the company’s direction: 

“This visit to AWS’s global headquarters reflects where Hubtel is headed. We’re not just running payments infrastructure; we’re building the data and AI capability that will let Ghanaian businesses compete on the best available standards. Sitting down with AWS’s data, security, and modernisation teams gives us a direct line to the tools shaping the next decade of tech and fintech and could bring that advantage home to Ghana.” 

The remark underlines a deliberate shift in how Hubtel positions itself: not simply as a payments processor, but as a technology company building underlying capability aligned with global fintech standards, and translating that capability into direct benefit for the businesses and consumers it serves in Ghana. It also reflects the ambition the company has set for itself: to become Africa’s most useful company, measured in the daily, practical value it creates for the people and businesses that rely on it. 

Board Chairperson Patience Akyianu, who led the delegation, repeatedly returned to one theme over the two days , the scale of what now lies within Hubtel’s reach: 

“I left these sessions genuinely excited about the prospects for Hubtel’s future. What we saw at AWS in Seattle confirmed that the capabilities shaping the world’s leading technology companies are within this company’s reach. The Board came away energised, and we look forward to the management team executing on the innovations we have been exposed to and turning them into real value for the businesses and consumers Hubtel serves.” 

Her remarks capture the governance dimension of the visit: a Board that has seen the frontier at first hand and now expects the company to build toward it. 

Why it matters 

Mobile money and digital payments now sit behind much of everyday commerce in Ghana. The data and AI systems underneath those payments increasingly determine how fast, secure, and reliable they are and, by extension, how easily a market trader receives payment, how quickly a family’s remittance arrives, and how confidently a business can sell online. 

Engagements of this kind give Hubtel’s leadership direct access to the specialist teams inside one of the world’s leading technology companies, the people who design the systems on which global finance runs. That access shortens the distance between global best practice and its application in Ghana. 

The Executive Briefing Center engagement is the start of closer, ongoing work between Hubtel and AWS on data, AI, resilience, and security, with specific initiatives to follow as the collaboration develops. Hubtel will work through this collaboration to bring global data and AI best practices home to the merchants, developers, and businesses that build on its platform, and to the millions of consumers they serve. 

The Hubtel delegation also visited the famous Amazon Spheres in the heart of Seattle, a fitting backdrop for a visit about what it takes to build for the long term. 

Before Hubtel: 

An insurance company that could only sell when its offices were open 

Ghana’s insurance market runs on agents and brokers. An agent or broker finds the customer, explains the product, processes the policy, and collects the premium. The system works when the agent can work. When the agent cannot, nothing moves. 

For this insurer, that meant every sale depended on office hours. A customer who wanted to buy a motor policy on a Saturday had one option: wait until Monday. An agent who had a willing buyer at 7pm had no way to close the sale at such an hour. They would have to call a branch colleague, ask someone to log in on their behalf, or tell the customer to come back during the week. Some customers came back. Many did not. 

Payments, when they did come in, arrived through every channel available. Cash at the counter. Mobile money. Bank transfers. Cheques. Each one landed in a different place and stayed there until someone manually pulled it all together.  

The reporting system they used was only accessible to staff. That meant a customer who wanted to buy could not do it on their own. An agent who wanted to sign someone on could not do that. Every transaction required a branch, a desk, and someone sitting at it. 

Insurance is a business built on relationships and timing. The relationship part worked. The timing did not. Customers who needed to act outside working hours had nowhere to go, and agents who wanted to serve them had no tool to help. 

Bringing Clarity: 

Putting insurance in the hands of agents and customers, wherever they are 

Hubtel came onboard to build a digital distribution and management system that would allow the business sell and serve outside the limits of its branches. The solution was direct: give agents a mobile tool, give customers a self-service option, and give branch staff a live view of the policies in their care. 

Hubtel built three interconnected portals and refreshed the company’s website. 

The Agent Portal was designed to work anytime, anywhere. An agent can now generate an insurance sticker, process a motor policy, or renew a travel policy from wherever they are. A customer who wants to buy on a Saturday afternoon can complete the transaction with their agent without either of them needing to set foot in a branch. 

The Customer Portal gives policyholders direct access to their own accounts. They can buy a motor or travel policy, renew an existing one, or manage multiple policies from their device. 

The Staff Portal gives branch teams a live view of what is happening in their branch: active policies, the total premiums those policies represent, and policies expiring within the next 90 days. Before this, a branch manager who wanted to know how many customers were coming up for renewal had to run a manual report from the system.  

Alongside the three portals, the company’s website was reorganized. An AI-powered chatbot, built to handle customer inquiries and capture leads, was integrated into the site. The chatbot has since generated significant customer interaction volume, helping the business understand what customers are asking and what they need before they ever speak to an agent. 

The five components Hubtel built: 

Putting Management in Control:

A live view of what every branch holds and what every agent earns 

Before the portals existed, staff relied on an internal system to understand what had been collected and which policies were active. The Staff Portal introduced a better management system.

A branch manager can now open the portal and see exactly how many policies are active, how much premium those policies represent, and how many customers are approaching their renewal date. Policies expiring within 90 days are surfaced directly, giving staff a clear, time-sensitive list to work from rather than a report they must search through. 

For the business, the Agent Portal introduced a layer of performance visibility. Every transaction an agent processes goes through the portal; the business can now see how much each agent is collecting, in which months, and from which policy lines. That data is the foundation for understanding which agents are most productive and where additional support or incentive would have the most impact. 

The monthly collection data from the Agent Portal tells its own story. In January 2026, agents collected GHS 604,794 through the portal. By May 2026, that figure had grown to GHS 970,649; a 60% increase in five months. The business can see that growth in real time and make decisions based on what is happening, not on what happened last month. 

What changed operationally: 

Pursuing Growth:

What agents with better tools produce 

The clearest proof of what the platform has produced is in comparison between agents who use it and agents who do not. 

Between January and May 2025, we tracked the performance of two groups of agents: 50 agents actively using the Agent Portal and 462 who were not. The portal agents sold an average of 16.87 policies per month. The non-portal agents sold an average of 9.16 per month. On a per-agent basis, portal users sold 84% more policies than their counterparts who were still working without a digital tool. 

Figure 1: Average policies sold per agent per month, January to May 2025 

The consistency of that advantage matters as much as the average. The portal agents outperformed non-portal agents in every month tracked: January, March, April, and May. The gap was widest in May, where portal agents averaged 14.82 policies against 5.16 for non-portal agents, a difference of nearly 3 to 1 that month. The advantage was not a single month of strong performance. It held across the whole period. 

The portal collection figures show the same direction of travel. In October 2024, when the portals first went live, total monthly collections through all three portals came to GHS 3,865. By July 2025, that figure had reached GHS 1.67 million in a single month. That is a growth of more than 430 times in nine months. 

Figure 2: Monthly collections through all portals, October 2024 to May 2026 (GHS) 

By 2026, the Agent Portal had become the dominant collection channel. Of the GHS 1.41 million collected across all portals in May 2026, the Agent Portal accounted for GHS 970,649, just under 69% of the total. The Customer Portal, which allows policyholders to transact directly without an agent, contributed GHS 114,765, its highest monthly figure to date and a sign that direct customer adoption is also building. 

Figure 3: Portal collections by channel, January to May 2026 (GHS Thousands) 

Collections grew from GHS 3.32 million in 2021 to GHS 19.74 million in 2025, an increase of 495% over four years. The 2025 total was the strongest year on record, supported by a 101.8% increase in transaction volume that year alone. 

Figure 4: Annual collections received via Hubtel, 2021 to 2026 YTD (GHS Millions) 

The year-by-year breakdown: 

The average transaction value grew from GHS 355.99 in 2021 to GHS 589.07 per customer by May 2026. This indicates that customers are not just paying more often. They are also paying for larger and more valuable policies each time. That is a sign of deeper engagement with the product, not just higher volumes going through the same channel. 

The Agent Portal has 50 active users who consistently outperform a group eight times larger that does not use it. The portals collectively processed GHS 1.41 million in May 2026, up from GHS 3,865 nineteen months earlier. And the average transaction value is rising every year. These numbers point in the same direction: the agents and customers who are using the platform are doing more business, at higher values, with more consistency than those who are not. 

Before Hubtel:

A gaming & entertainment company entering Ghana with no payment infrastructure 

A leading pan-African sports gaming & entertainment company entered the Ghanaian market with a strong product and a large customer base already built across other African markets. What they did not have was a way to collect money or pay money out to their customers. 

In the gaming & entertainment industry, a customer usually deposits money into their account, places a bet, and if they win, expects to receive their winnings quickly. Those two actions, depositing and withdrawing, are the core of the business. If either of them fails, even for a few minutes, the customer notices immediately and the business stands at risk of losing trust. The faster the event, the faster the expectation. A customer watching a live match and trying to place a bet has very little tolerance for payment glitches. 

Finding a payment processor that could handle that kind of volume in Ghana was paramount. The company needed a partner that could process deposits at very high speed, disburse winnings just as fast, and hold up reliably during the peak moments when thousands of customers are active at the same time.  

They also needed payment channels that reached all their customers, not just those with smartphones or bank accounts. Customers who did not have smartphones needed a USSD code to transact. Any payment solution that worked only for smartphone users would leave a fraction of the market unreachable. 

Hubtel was the first payment processor the company worked with in Ghana. There was no existing infrastructure to migrate from. The entire payment operation was built from a standing start. 

Bringing Clarity:

Building the payment infrastructure the business needed to operate 

Hubtel connected the two core payment flows the business runs on. The Receive Money API handles customer deposits: a customer adds funds to their account using mobile money or bank, and the transaction is confirmed instantly. The Send Money API handles disbursements: when a customer wins a bet, the winnings are sent directly to their mobile money. Both APIs were exactly what the business needed to handle the speed and volume that a live gaming & entertainment operation demands.  

We also provided a USSD payment channel to reach customers who did not use smartphones. A customer can deposit into their account by dialing a short code, without needing internet access. 

On top of the payment channels, we provided a set of supporting services. An SMS and Notification API to deliver one-time passwords, transaction confirmations, and campaign messages to customers. A Balance Query API lets the operator check account balances programmatically. A Transfer API moves funds between accounts. A Merchant Dashboard gives the operator’s team a view of transaction activity across all channels in one place. 

The demands placed on this infrastructure were significant from the start. In the gaming & entertainment industry, transactions usually arrive in bursts, concentrated around major fixtures and live events. During a Champions League evening or a major African competition, the volume of deposit and withdrawal requests rises sharply in a very short window. Building infrastructure that could absorb those spikes without slowing down or failing required Hubtel to invest deeply in the reliability and capacity of its payment platform. The infrastructure we provided to serve this business became the most capable version of its payment systems at that point in time. 

The solutions Hubtel provides to the operator: 

Putting Management in Control:

Reliability as the foundation of a high-volume operation 

For a business that processes transactions around major sporting events, the most important thing a payment platform can provide is not just speed. It is consistency. A system that works well most of the time but fails during the moments of highest demand is not a system a gaming & entertainment operator can build on. 

The Merchant Dashboard gives the operator’s team a real-time view of what is flowing in and out across all payment channels. Deposits, disbursements, transaction counts, and channel performance are visible in one place. When a live event is driving high volumes, the team can see what is happening on the dashboard as it happens, rather than finding out after the fact. 

Five years on, we have processed 2.98 billion successful transactions. The word successful in that figure carries operational weight. It means the vast majority of what customers have tried to do has worked. 

Pursuing Growth: 

Five years, GHS 162 billion, and a record set every year 

In 2021, Hubtel processed GHS 5.94 billion in combined transaction value for the operator across all payment channels. In 2025, that figure was GHS 52.53 billion. From one year to the next, across every year in the dataset, the total has grown. 

Figure 1: Combined transaction value processed by Hubtel, 2021 to 2026 YTD (GHS Billions) 

The growth was steepest in the early years. Combined transaction value grew 122% in 2022 and 96% in 2023. These were the years in which the operator established its full commercial scale in Ghana, building a customer base and a volume of activity that has continued to grow since. 

By 2025, we had processed GHS 28.88 billion in deposits alone across 625.1 million transactions. That is an average of more than 1.7 million deposit transactions every single day of the year. The Send Money API processed GHS 23.65 billion in the same year, distributing winnings to customers across 100 million individual disbursements. 

Figure 2: Receive Money and Send Money volumes by year, 2021 to 2026 YTD (GHS Billions) 

Transaction volumes tell the same story from a different angle. On the Receive Money API, the number of deposit transactions grew from 204.6 million in 2021 to 625.1 million in 2025. On the Send Money API, disbursement transactions grew from 28.1 million to 100 million over the same period. Together, both API processed 725 million transactions in 2025 alone. 

Figure 3: Transaction volume by channel, 2021 to 2026 YTD (Millions) 

In 2021, the average Receive Money transaction per customer was worth GHS 15.91. By the first five months of 2026, it had grown to GHS 53.22. On the Send Money API, the average disbursement grew from GHS 95.43 in 2021 to GHS 263.28 in 2026 YTD. This indicates that customers are not only transacting more often. They are transacting at meaningfully higher values each time. 

Figure 4: Average transaction value by channel, 2021 to 2026 YTD (GHS) 

The full year-by-year breakdown: 

 
By May 2026, Hubtel had already processed GHS 29.68 billion for the operator in the first five months of the year. That is more than the entire combined value for 2022 in less than half the time. If the pace holds, 2026 will set a new record. What started as a connection between a new market entrant and a local payment processor has, over five years, become one of the largest payment operations in Ghana, and by every available measure, it is still accelerating. 

For many laundry and home cleaning businesses, the hardest part is not doing the work. It is following up for payment afterwards. 

A customer picks up their clothes and says they will send the Mobile Money later that evening. A home cleaning client says they will pay after confirming with their spouse. Another customer sees your message, replies “sure boss,” and still forgets to send the payment. 

Now you have to follow up again. 

So, you type: 

“Please have you been able to send?” 

But that can feel uncomfortable sometimes. 

Not because customers do not want to pay. Most of the time, they simply forget. But the responsibility of remembering, and asking again, always falls on the business owner. 

After a while, the reminders become exhausting. 

You start mentally tracking: 

• Who has paid 

• Who promised to pay later 

• Which jobs are still unpaid 

• Who needs another follow-up message 

And when you are handling multiple pickups, deliveries, or cleaning appointments every week, keeping up with all of them becomes difficult. 

READ ALSO: Upcoming Changes: Do More in One Place 

That is why many laundry and home cleaning businesses are moving away from manual follow-ups to invoicing. 

With Hubtel BackOffice Invoicing, you can send an invoice the moment a job is completed, or clothes are collected. The invoice includes the amount, payment link, and due date, in one message. 

Then the system handles the reminder for you automatically. 

So instead of chasing customers on WhatsApp, they receive a payment reminder from the invoice itself. It feels more professional, less personal, and much easier for you and the customer. 

Your customers usually intend to pay, but sometimes they just need a nudge that does not have to come from you. 

Hubtel BackOffice Invoicing lets you send invoices and set automatic reminders, so you can focus on the work, not the follow-up. 

Send invoices with automatic reminders using Hubtel BackOffice

On Thursday, May 14, senior leadership from Dubai Chambers visited our head office in Kokomlemle for a strategic conversation about Ghana’s investment climate and what deeper collaboration between the two could look like. 

The delegation was led by Salem Al Sahmsi, Executive Vice President; Mohammed Al Attar, Director for Africa; and Cyril Darkwa, Chief Representative for Ghana and West Africa. 

The discussion covered Dubai Chambers‘ mandate in depth, including supporting businesses in expanding across borders, connecting them to the right partners and networks, and facilitating introductions between established and emerging players across the continent. It also opened a direct line into one of the world’s most influential business and trade ecosystems. 

The meeting also opened space for longer-horizon conversations, including the prospect of Hubtel establishing a presence in Dubai and what that market entry could mean for regional and global ambitions. Both sides also discussed possible pathways to channel strategic Gulf investment into Ghana’s priority sectors, a conversation that goes well beyond introductions. 

READ ALSO: Hubtel Hosts Leaders of the UK Department for Business and Trade 

Hubtel’s General Manager, Mr. Ernest Kwesi Apenteng described the discussions as grounded and forward-looking. 

“We explored several areas where collaboration could be genuinely beneficial, from market entry support to the networks Dubai Chambers brings to the table. The conversation was forward-looking, and there is clear appetite on both sides to take things further.” 

He added that “when the right opportunity presents itself, you want to already have your house in order. And these conversations are part of that process.” 

Mr. Mohammed Al Attar, Director for Africa at Dubai Chambers, was equally direct. 

“Our presence here ahead of New Horizon is deliberate. Ghana is increasingly on the radar of serious investors from the Gulf, and engagements like this one with Hubtel are exactly the kind of relationship-building that turns investor interest into real, on-the-ground action.” 

This visit is part of a series of consultations Dubai Chambers is holding with key stakeholders in the lead-up to the New Horizon investment forum, being organised in collaboration with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the Ministry of Trade, and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI). 

About Hubtel 

Founded in Ghana in 2005, Hubtel has spent two decades redefining what’s possible in digital services with an amazing start-up journey. As a licensed Payment Service Provider (Enhanced) of the Bank of Ghana, Hubtel is today the largest and fastest-growing payment service provider in Ghana, and one of the most successful fintechs on the African continent, processing over 5.5 million transactions every single day. Hubtel currently operates 12 offices nationwide across 11 cities with over 600 employees.

Group CEO of Absa, Mr. Kenny Fihla met with General Manager, Ernest Apenteng along with the leadership teams of both companies over a lunch meeting as part of his official visit to Ghana. 

The meeting focused on shared opportunities and how both companies can strengthen the long-standing collaboration between Absa and Hubtel. 

Advancing the Credit Economy 

Discussions covered activity in the credit space, including digital credit and Buy Now, Pay Later services. Hubtel shared insights from a live pilot granting transactional loans to users on selected apps, which is seeing strong adoption and growth. Opportunities to deepen collaboration in the credit space were also explored, building on the work of an existing joint technical committee. 

Unlocking SME Financing Opportunities 

Both organisations acknowledge that access to credit for small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs) remains a largely untapped opportunity, and strong alignment on the need to develop innovative solutions to address this gap and support inclusive economic growth. 

Accelerating Partnerships and Strategic Alignment 

Mr. Kenny Fihla proposed expanding the joint technical engagement to enable faster execution and broader impact. There was also discussion on establishing a regular platform to review strategy, innovation, and partnership opportunities across payments, credit, and digital finance.  

Impact in Revenue Mobilisation 

Hubtel’s work with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) was also cited in the context of public sector revenue collection. Since the initiative began in late 2024, collections have grown year-on-year setting new record revenue collections for the AMA each year. Revenue collection for AMA has grown by over 550% since the new system was deployed fully from January 2025 to December 2025.  
 
Absa offered support to collaborate with Hubtel to expand similar services to other assemblies and local authorities across the country. 

READ ALSO: Hubtel Hosts Leaders of the UK Department for Business and Trade 

Ghana’s fintech ecosystem continues to evolve across payments, credit, and digital finance as collaboration between bank, mobile money providers and payment service providers deepens. 

Both the leadership from Absa and Hubtel resolved to press forward with plans to work even more stronger together through technical collaborations to expand their payments infrastructure, support customers in accessing digital services and ultimately grow transaction volumes.