GhIPSS: Archie Hesse Discusses Payment System Infrastructures in Ghana

Archie Hesse, CEO of GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited), talks about payment system infrastructures in Ghana.

“The common trend with national payment system infrastructures is that they are cooperatively owned by financial institutions in a country. In some cases, the Central Bank shares the ownership with a small stake. In Ghana’s particular case, when the idea of a national infrastructure was mooted, the banks did not buy into it straight away. So, the Central Bank decided to go ahead and then bring the banks in when the time was right. Now, the national payment system infrastructure in Ghana is owned 100% by the Central Bank. Today, the interest of banks in owning a stake in GhIPSS is at an all-time high. About two years ago, GhIPSS started a process which will eventually lead to joint ownership of the company by banks and the Central Bank. the preferred model is to have majority shares owned by banks and to a lesser extent by the Central Bank. For example, in England, Vocalink is now owned by MasterCard, which is purely a private company. So you can see that generally, it is either exclusive ownership by banks or a combination of banks owning majority shares and the Central Bank owning about 5 to 10% of the company”, says Archie Hesse.

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