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The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Interbank and Payment System (GhIPSS) Mr Archie Hesse said concerted effort was required to increase the number of point of sales (POS) and other electronic payment channels throughout the country.
He said the State, stakeholder institutions and business owners must work together to ensure effective deployment of POSes and other devices that accept electronic payments.

Electronic payment cards, internet banking and mobile money have created a huge volume of electronic payments but the CEO of GhIPSS noted that most of the transactions on these channels still end up in cash.
'A lot of us have debit and even credit cards in Ghana as well as mobile money wallets but most of us go and take cash from the ATMs and our mobile money wallet,' Mr Hesse said, adding that the practice defeats the real purpose of electronic payments and must be changed.

The GhIPSS Boss catalogues a number of steps that must be taken to reverse the trend, saying as a first step POSes and various apps that would enable people make payments with cards and mobile money must be sufficiently deployed.
He said GhIPSS would partner with stakeholders to champion the cause of deploying more electronic payment outlets.
He also said banks in partnership with merchants could introduce incentive packages for people who pay with cards or mobile money to encourage their users.

He intimated that there might be the need for policies to incentivize electronic payments and discourage cash and added that GhIPSS will work closely with stakeholders to explore those options.
Meanwhile, business owners are also asking for tax waivers on POSes and other devices for electronic payments, so that they could acquire and deploy more of them.

They argued that such waivers will not only enable them to acquire more of such devices but it will also make it easier for them to institute incentives for those who use them.

Experts have said the use of electronic payments was efficient and cheaper compared to the handling of cash by merchants.
They have also indicated that business owners were likely to make more sales when they have these devices because shoppers were able to spend more than they would if they were using cash. These merits, they say made the acquisition and deployment of the electronic payment devices by shop owners a profitable venture.

Source: modernghana.com

Government has disclosed that it will roll out the mobile money interoperability system in May this year – 2018.
This latest date comes after missing about three initial timelines for the implementation of the policy.

The mobile money interoperability is to allow consumers transfer money across all mobile networks without any restrictions.

This is also in fulfillment of driving a cash lite economy in Ghana.
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is confident the policy will help attract more investments and enhance financial inclusion in the country.

“There is a lot of work that has been done and I am happy to say that all things being equal, in May which is in a couple of months’ time, we expect to launch Ghana’s interoperable system. It is really going to be the vehicle for true interoperability as well as financial inclusion.”

“This means that all the mobile companies and all the bank accounts will be interoperable and so we are providing this vehicle for financial inclusion and it will help us also move towards a cashless society,” the Vice President added.
The Ghana Interbank and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) has since been mandated to provide the interoperability platform for the players in the ecosystem.

The contract to GhIPSS came after a botched agreement with Sibton Switch which had earlier agreed to offer the service for some 4.6 billion cedis.

The Vice President for the first time gave the GhIPSS a November 2017 deadline.

This was extended to January 2018.
Subsequently, the CEO of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse admitted to completing all the necessary processes to allow for a takeoff by February 2018.

Dr. Bawumia was speaking at the opening ceremony for the Norway-Ghana Business Forum.
The meeting with some potential investors from Norway also outlined additional plans to attract investors into the country into critical sectors like the oil and gas, agriculture as well as mining industry.

SOURCE: citifmonline.com