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Banks and third-party companies have been commended for their role in driving patronage for electronic payments in the past year.

The role by these institutions and their customers have led to significant growth in the various electronic payments products and services, the management of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), has noted.

The GhIPSS also mentioned the adoption of the various payment channels by government as well as non-government agencies for the performance in 2017 and previous years.

Speaking in an interview, the Chief Executive of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse, explained that the organisation does not deal directly with the public but rather works through financial institutions and third-party payment companies in order to serve the public.

He said the role of the partners was crucial to the success of the electronic payment agenda, and commended them for the partnership, urging them to do more this year and the years ahead.

Mr Hesse said the continuous growth in e-zwich transactions was commendable and encouraged financial institutions to make additional provision to be able to serve the growing numbers of e-zwich users.

The GhIPSS Boss said they would engage the media a lot more this year, in its bid to sensitise the public on the need to embrace electronic payment as a lifestyle, so that the individual and the economy as a whole will benefit from the effective application of technology to payments.

The GhIPSS was set up over a decade ago to modernise the country’s payment system and migrate Ghana into an electronic society. Since its establishment, the Bank of Ghana subsidiary has rolled out a number of initiatives that has led to a significant rise in non-cash forms of payments.

The services include e-zwich, electronic clearing of cheques, Automated Clearing House, Gh-link ATM interoperability, and hybrid Point of Sales (POS) devices.

The institution, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has also introduced the GhIPSS Instant Pay and enabled foreign remittance agencies to be able to remit directly into the bank account or e-zwich card of recipients.

The various services provided by GhIPSS saw a growth in patronage and this feat is being attributed to the effective partnership between GhIPSS and its key stakeholders.

Source: GNA

The number of persons using the biometric smart card e-zwich witnessed a significant growth over the past one year, according to data released by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements System covering operations from 2016 to 2017.
Break down of numbers

The number of e-zwich cardholders as of December 2017, were 2,364,456. This is an increase of 25.90% over the 1,878,044 cardholders in 2016
Total volume of e-zwich transactions increased by 55.95%; from 5,365,085 in 2016 to 8,367,017 in 2017. Similarly, total value of transactions in 2017 grew by 45.22% to GH¢3,4Billion.

The e-zwich International Remittance Platform allows e-zwich cardholders in Ghana to receive money directly unto their e-zwich cards or bank accounts from abroad.

In 2017 international remittances received via e-zwich recorded significant growth of 311.44% in volume and 397.61% in value compared to 2016. The total amount on cards (Float) was GH¢74.43 million in December 2017 showing an increase of 38.94% over same period 2016.

The volume of PDS payments (Payment Distribution System) in 2017 was 2.9 million representing an increase of 37% over the same period in 2016. Value of PDS payments in the same period was GH¢940.95 million also representing an increase of 39% over the same period in 2016.

A total number of thirty-nine (39) organizations which consist of twenty-five (25) private organizations and fourteen (14) government institutions use the PDS to disburse loans, salaries, wages and pensions to beneficiaries.

This method of payment is convenience, fast and reduces the risk of fraud and loss of monies associated with withdrawal of huge sums of money for distribution to the employees or beneficiaries.

The increasing trend in e-zwich transactions since 2015 could be attributed to government’s use of the system to pay caterers of national school feeding programme, beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Nurses and Teacher Trainees allowances, Students Loans Trust Fund and personnel of the National Service Scheme as means of ensuring efficiency in payments and eliminate waste in its expenditure.

Source: myjoyonline.com