The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has launched the GhanaPay mobile money service, an electronic payment platform to enhance financial services and promote financial inclusion.
The GhanaPay is a mobile money service, the first bank-wide solution in Ghana, providing an opportunity for users to have access to unlimited banking services in addition to existing mobile money services.
The novelty platform was developed through collaborative efforts by the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlement System (GhIPSS) and the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) under the supervision of the Bank of Ghana.
GhanaPay is like any mobile money service, but with additional banking services designed for financial freedom and a bank-wide mobile money service provided by universal banks, rural banks and savings and loans companies to individuals and businesses.
Dr Bawumia said the service formed part of the financial inclusion agenda of government.
He said every individual with access to a mobile phone could register for the service, with or without a bank account, stressing that transactions on the platform were free, except e-levy charges.
Dr Bawumia, said the new digital age required collaboration from all stakeholders, including the financial services providers in ensuring a secured payment eco system.
He pledged that the government would continue to create the enabling environment for such innovative products to be rolled out.
Dr Bawumia expressed the optimism that the platform would provide healthy competition to the mobile money space, leading to enhanced services and lower the cost of financial transactions.
Vice President Bawumia commended the Ghana Association of Banks, GHIPSS, and the Central Bank and all institutions that supported the creation of the platform.
The Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, on his part said the banking sector demonstrated resilience and its ability to offer crucial support to businesses and households during the pandemic and necessitated the creation of the GhanaPay.
According to the governor, GhanaPay was a mobile wallet and the cost of testing any new technology for each bank would be reduced and allow for new ways of doing business.
“This is an exciting development for Ghana’s payment systems landscape and demonstrates how collaboration with the banking sector can proffer solutions for the transformation and deepening of the payments ecosystem,” he added.
The governor said the introduction of the GhanaPay was laudable and urged players in the banking and financial industries to “step up efforts to digitise the value chain for both merchants and users through digitisation of payments to distributors, wholesalers, and retail outlets.”
Dr Addison called on the banking sector to collaborate and further explore more pioneering ways to attain greater efficiency in the payments ecosystem in order to move the country towards a successful migration to electronic payments and an efficient and effective payment system.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, Mr Archie Hesse, said the GhanaPay was a bank-wide mobile wallet shared platform, that allowed universal banks, rural banks and savings and loans companies to issue and manage mobile wallets for consumers, agents and merchants in Ghana.
He explained that it would present banks the opportunity to provide the informal sector with a wallet that combines the features of traditional mobile money service and a bouquet of banking services.
“As a collaborative initiative, GhanaPay is being offered as common service with one USSD code and Mobile Application, it’s offering, and can best be described as the best of both worlds,” he said.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
