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.

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

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.

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 were therefore crucial to the success of the electronic payment agenda. He therefore commended them for the partnership and urged them to do even more of this in the coming years.

Mr. Hesse noted the continuous growth in e-zwich transactions 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 will 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.