Bloggers, website owners in Ghana won’t be able to use Western Union as payment option on Google Adsense
Publishers, bloggers, Youtubers and owners of small websites in Ghana who relied on Google Adsense, the advertising service of Google, as a source of earning some income will no longer be able to receive payments through Western Union, as Google discontinues the use of the money transfer system as a payment option.
Google through Adsense, placed third party adverts on websites and blogs and shared the revenue with the owners depending on site views and clicks on the adverts among others.
Despite the growth and investment in technology, banking procedures in Ghana are cumbersome and expensive, making Western Union and other similar money transfer services in Ghana convenient and preferable to other forms of funds transfer from abroad.
Google announced August 10, 2020 that Western Union will no longer be available when choosing form of payment.
“As of August 10, 2020, you will no longer be able to select Western Union as a new form of payment. We recommend that publishers currently using Western Union switch to another available payment method before payments through Western Union stop in early 2021.
We will inform current users in advance as to when Western Union can no longer be used to receive payments in their country. Learn more about the other available forms of payment and how to set up your form of payment,” Google said.
Of the five other options available for funds transfer, only one might be a viable option for people in Ghana who would want to use Google’s Adsense product. These are Cheques, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), EFT via Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), Rapida and Wire Transfer.
Out of the five payment options offered by Google, people in Ghana can use two to receive payment from Google – these are cheques and wire transfer, but Ghana banks do not accept offshore cheques which leaves wire transfer as the only option.
Google did not say why it is removing Western Union as a payment option for users.
Meanwhile, Google Adsense earnings, which was once a decent source of income for small website owners, bloggers and Youtubers has dwindled.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi