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The Chief Executive of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), Archie Hesse has urged trainee teachers, nurses and students in general, to cultivate the habit of using their e-zwich cards to make payments.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Hesse said the use of the cards to make payments was a more efficient way than just using it to withdraw funds and then make payments with cash.

The number of e-zwich cardholders continue to rise as government turns to the electronic payment system for disbursement of funds for many of its social interventions.

The latest additions being the trainee nurses and teachers’ allowances. While commending government for the bold initiative, Mr. Hesse is of the view that government’s extensive use of the e-zwich system should dovetail into the larger cashless agenda by encouraging the holders of the biometric card to use it to pay for goods and services.

He, therefore, wanted the Central Bank, and financial institutions to team up with GhIPSS to create more avenues where e-zwich cardholders can use their cards to make payments.

He suggested that key stakeholders should find ways of making more Point of Sales (POS) devices available at cheaper cost to merchants so that they can deploy many more particularly at locations where these students shop.

The use of e-zwich to pay allowances, salaries and other forms of emoluments christened e-zwich Payment Distribution System, (PDS) saw a 94 percent jump in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.

The total volume of the transactions went up from over 700,000 to over 1.3 million, according to the half-year performance report of GhIPSS.

The report also indicates that the value of transactions over the same period was up by almost 53 percent from 283.8 million cedis to 433.4 million cedis.
The significant rise shows that more people are paid through e-zwich than previously.

“With the addition of trainee nurses, teachers and the first-year university students, the volume and value of transactions will go up further, and so we have to seize the opportunity to make these first-time users opt to use the cards to make payments,” Mr. Hesse stressed.

He said the intervention of the Central Bank and government to make the POSes cheaper, would be timely and in line with the current cashless, paperless and technology enabled services that government was championing.

GNA

The public has been urged to turn to Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Instant Pay (GIP) when they have to make quick or emergency payments. This is because the payment system allows bank customers to effect interbank transfers instantly. This was in a statement by Mr. Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

Mr. Hesse said the GIP is the most efficient and secured way to transfer money instantly from one account to another of a different bank.

He said there have been instances where bank customers urgently needed to receive or make payments, but until GIP was introduced, they had to rely on cheques or Automated Clearing House Direct Credit or Direct Debit, which took between a day and three days for the recipient to get value for the transferred funds.  

He said the situation has compelled many people to physically go to banking halls to withdraw cash in order to effect such urgent payments.

Mr. Hesse explained that the situation would no longer be necessary as the GIP allows for instant interbank transfers to be done electronically. He said the GIP can be done from a bank's mobile app or the internet banking portal, depending on the channels being offered by the customer’s bank and therefore would not require any physical movement.

Mr. Hesse urged the public to ask for GIP from their banks anytime they would make urgent payments. He said most of the major banks in the country offer the GIP service with some of them customising it to give additional value to their customers.

The GIP comes very handy for business people particularly because they can make multiple payments from the comfort of their offices and the intended recipients will get instant value for the transferred funds.

Mr. Hesse explained that situations where buyers have to wait for a day or two for cheques to clear before goods are released should be the thing of the past as suppliers can now be paid instantly through the banking system without stepping in the banking hall.

He anticipates that GIP would increase the turnaround time for many businesses and make payments stress free. He also urged banks to continue to educate the public about GIP, so that they can enjoy the convenience, efficiency and security that comes with the service.

GNA