How to create an online store in Ghana with mobile money

01Five ways to sell online, from simplest to most complete

You don't have to jump straight to a full website. Start with the step that fixes your biggest problem.

A WhatsApp Business catalogue

The WhatsApp Business app is free, and its catalogue turns your products into a simple shop inside WhatsApp. Each item can have up to 10 photos, a name and a description, and WhatsApp reviews items before customers can see them. Customers add items to a cart and send it to your chat as an order, then you agree payment and delivery. You can share the catalogue, or a single item, as a link in chats and on your Status.

The limit: every order is still a conversation, and you check every payment by hand.

Social media

Instagram, TikTok and Facebook bring new customers. Post real photos with the price in the caption, and send everyone to one place to order, usually WhatsApp. Posts get buried quickly, though, and checking payments is still your job.

A marketplace

Marketplaces bring their own shoppers. These still operate in Ghana at the time of writing.

• Jumia is an online shop shared by many sellers. You register through its Vendor Center with a valid ID, your contact details, the business location and an MTN Mobile Money or bank account in your own name. Companies add registration and tax documents. Listing is free, but Jumia takes a commission that depends on the category (its 2026 seller guide uses 20% for fashion) plus a shipping contribution.
• Tonaton (owned by Jiji since 2022) and Jiji are classified-ad sites. You post ads with photos and a price, and buyers contact you directly, so payment and delivery are up to you. Basic ads are free, and Jiji sells packages that lift ads above the free ones.

The limit: you sit next to many other sellers, often competing on price, and the shoppers belong more to the marketplace than to you.

A hosted store builder

A store builder gives you product pages, a cart and a checkout without any code. Two payment providers that work in Ghana offer one:

• Paystack Storefront has no setup or subscription fee: Paystack takes its normal fee on each sale. It's open to Paystack merchants in Ghana, and lets you set delivery fees by location.
• Moolre has a Storefront too, with its payments built in.

International builders such as Shopify charge a monthly plan, plus Shopify's own fee on sales paid through an outside provider such as Paystack. WordPress, Wix or Shopify, or build with AI? compares the options.

The limit: you work inside the builder's design and rules.

Your own website

Your own website gives you your own address and design. A good one saves every order, emails you and the customer, gives you a private dashboard, and takes payment through a provider's checkout. It costs the most to start: What a website really costs a small business in Ghana explains the bill, and What makes a website win customers for a local business the pages. If you'd rather have one built, tell us what you need and we'll share it with web designers we trained in Ghana.

02Payment providers that take mobile money

To take MoMo on a store or website, you need a payment provider, also called a payment gateway. The customer chooses mobile money at checkout, enters their number and approves the payment on their own phone with their PIN. The provider keeps its fee and pays you the rest: Paystack, for example, pays out to a bank account or a MoMo wallet the next working day.

Telecel Cash used to be Vodafone Cash and AT Money used to be AirtelTigo Money, so some providers still use the old names. Fees change, and some providers let you pass the fee on to the customer, so check each provider's pricing page on the day you sign up. Check too that it's licensed by the Bank of Ghana.

What you need to open an account

Every provider checks who you are before it pays you.

• Paystack accepts unregistered businesses as a "Starter Business": a government ID (passport, national ID, driver's licence or voter's card), a tax identification number (TIN) and a personal bank account or MoMo number, all in the same name. Payments pause at a collection limit of GHS 30,000 until you upgrade to a registered business. That adds a certificate of registration for a sole proprietor, or a certificate of incorporation, Form 3 and TIN for a limited company.
• Hubtel asks for a valid national ID and checks that you sell your own products, not as an agent. Its website says it's built for established, "scale-ready" businesses, not sellers who only want to collect MoMo.
• expressPay and Moolre both verify ID but don't publish a full document list for businesses. Ask them before you start.

Open the account in the business's name, with its own email, and upload ID documents straight into the provider's website or app, not over WhatsApp. If a designer sets it up, invite them as a team member: they should never hold your login.

03Delivery and pick-up

Decide this before you open, because customers ask early.

• Pick-up from your shop or a clear meeting point costs you nothing and suits customers nearby.
• Your own rider suits food and same-day orders. Set a fixed fee for each area, such as East Legon or Adum, so nobody has to ask.
• For other towns, use a courier or a bus company's parcel service. Jumia's seller guide also describes Jumia Delivery, which carries parcels for sales made outside Jumia, through pick-up points across the country.

Ask each customer for a phone number, a landmark and their Ghana Post GPS digital address (it looks like GA-123-4567), and tell them when to expect the order.

Then decide when they pay. Paying first protects you from wasted trips, and paying on arrival helps a new store win its first customers. A middle way is the delivery fee first, the rest on arrival.

04What makes customers trust a new store

A first-time customer can't touch your products, so they look for signs that you're real:

• Clear prices in cedis on every item. "DM for price" sends people away.
• Delivery fees and times for each area, shown before they pay.
• A way to reach a person: a WhatsApp number, a phone you answer, and your area or pick-up point.
• A returns policy in plain words: what can come back, within how many days, who pays for delivery, and how refunds are paid, for example back to the same MoMo number.
• Real photos of your real products in good light, not pictures copied from the internet.
• The same business name on the store, WhatsApp, Instagram and your payment account.

Then keep your promises: answer quickly and keep prices and stock up to date.

05Keep customer data and payments safe

A store holds names, phone numbers and addresses, and it moves money. A few habits prevent most problems:

• Let the provider handle payment details. Customers enter card details on the provider's checkout and approve MoMo on their own phone. Never ask anyone for a card number or PIN.
• Check the money, not the screenshot. Confirm each payment in your provider's dashboard or your own wallet before you send the order. Screenshots and text messages can be faked.
• Designers: keep secret keys on the server, never in the browser's code or on GitHub, and mark an order paid only after your server has checked with the provider. Moolre's and expressPay's developer guides both say a payment notification on its own isn't proof.
• Collect only what you need to deliver. You don't need a customer's Ghana Card number to sell them shoes.
• Lock the accounts with strong passwords and 2-step login: the store, the payment account and the business email.
• Know the law. Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) covers your customers' personal details, and the Data Protection Commission says organisations that process personal data must register with it. Check what applies to you at dpc.gov.gh.

06Learn to build stores like this

Module 11 of the course, Project 2: A Real Client Business Website, has you build a complete site for a salon, restaurant or shop: orders or bookings saved to a database, emails to the owner and the customer, and a private owner login, with the security checks from Module 10. Module 14 covers putting a client's payment account in the client's name, never yours. Module 0 is free, so you can see how the course teaches first, then look at the full course.