High-tech, higher tax: Ghanaians face punishing new levy on electronic payments

From May, a 1.5% charge will hit mobile phone transactions above 100 cedis (10). In the country's bustling markets, people are angry and anxious

At her shop in Accra's sprawling Kantamanto market - one of the largest for second-hand clothes in west Africa - Cynthia Bentum sits on top of a mound of goods imported from Guangzhou and Manchester.

Many who trawl through her clothes are traders themselves and pay via their mobile phones, so the decision by Ghana's government this week to tax all electronic payments has left Bentum, 49, frustrated.