The move, it said is to allow the general public to pay for such services online.
The General Manager at GhIPSS in charge of Project and Business Development, Mr Achie Hesse, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in Accra, said the electronic payment system was aimed at reducing the various frustrations and costs associated with the manual payment process.
Mr Hesse said the electronic payment system was part of a series of projects that the GhIPSS intended to deplore this year.
He mentioned a hybrid Automated Teller Machine (ATM) that would accept the ATM cards of all banks in the country, a complimentary switch that allows GhIPSS’s e-zwich point of sale device to accept all other money cards.
Another project for the year is a system to link up the mobile money services of the telecom companies to one system.
Most of these projects, he said, were expected to be piloted in the second quarter of this year and fully become operational in the subsequent quarters.
On the online payment system for the services of government institutions, Mr Hesse said the GhIPSS has since commenced discussions with some of the institutions on the various modalities of the new system which was expected to test-run within the second quarter of this year.
“We want to introduce an Internet payment system that will allow clients of public sector institutions to pay for the costs of their transactions with public institutions online without necessarily having to walk to the institution concerned to do payments,” the GM said.
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| Mr Achie Hesse, GM at GhIPSS |
Such a strategy, according Mr Hesse, was informed by the various difficulties and time constraints associated with cash payments for services rendered to the general public by government institutions.
The GhIPSS, since its establishment, has been fighting to reduce the country’s over reliance on cash transactions and its inherent difficulties to individuals and the economy at large.
On the performance of the GhIPSS e-zwich card, Mr Hesse said patronage of the facility has been encouraging as more corporate institutions and individuals resorted to it for various transactions.
“More employers in the informal sector are beginning to realise the importance of the card and their patronage for it has been increasing,” Mr Hesse said adding that unlike the automated clearing system where workers salaries were sometimes delayed because of inter-bank payment difficulties, “payment of salaries on the e-zwich is accessible moments after the cash has been paid in.”
“And that is one of the numerous features of the card that makes it more favourable to corporate institutions that wish to avoid the challenges that come with salary delays,” he added.
The GhIPSS GM said the operations of the Ghana Automated Cheque Clearing House (GACH), another facility by GhIPSS launched last year, has also picked up successfully within the banking community.
“We are recording an average of 60 transactions per month as against the projected 40 transactions per month initially estimated and that is good news,” he said.
He emphasised that GhIPSS was committed to easing the various difficulties associated with cash transactions in the economy while smoothening the way for banks and their clients to operate efficiently.
He thus called on the banks and other financial institutions in the country to cooperate with GhIPSS as it implemented the infrastructure necessary for a smooth take-off of these initiatives.
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