A common electronic wallet platform for banks, savings and loans companies and rural and community banks have been launched by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS).
The new innovation by GhIPSS is aimed at integrating mobile money and banking services.
The introduction of GhanaPay complements measures to accelerate Ghana’s migration to electronic payments and encourage the banking sector to collaborate and further explore more pioneering ways to attain greater efficiency in the payments ecosystem.
GhanaPay will allow consumers to have both mobile money and banking services on their mobile phone at no extra cost except the payment of Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) whenever a transaction is done.
Speaking at the launch, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, described the entry of Ghana Pay as a helpful tool to support the financial payment ecosystem.
With the introduction of GhanaPay, the banking sector can address this market gap through continuous collaboration to expand merchant acceptance with greater focus on lower tier merchants. There is no doubt that the appropriate support for the payment systems value chain and public education, infrastructure light solutions such as the GhanaPay, can boost electronic payment acceptance.
“The introduction of the GhanaPay is laudable, but there is still more room for expansion and banks must step up efforts to digitise the value chain for both merchants and users through digitisation of payments to distributors,” the Governor noted.
The Governor further noted that, GhanaPay will help address some of the challenges associated with the current bank centric models by providing an open application that leverages on network infrastructure of the entire banking industry.
With GhanaPay, the Governor said merchants do not necessarily need to maintain banking relationships with several banks to receive bill payments from other bank customers, adding, customers only need to maintain an account with a bank to make bill payments to the entire network of customers and merchants registered with GhanaPay.
GhanaPay, therefore, facilitates resource pooling from the entire banking industry and reduces duplication. It is expected that the industry will be guided by this innovation and continue to retool and respond to the changing environment.
The Governor congratulated GhIPSS and the banking industry on the development of GhanaPay, saying, “it is my fervent hope that this collaborative spirit will be sustained and enhanced to move the country towards a successful migration to electronic payments and an efficient and effective payment system.”
In less than a decade, GhIPSS Instant Pay transactions valued at ¢420,000 in 2016 surged exponentially to ¢31.4 billion in 2021.
In tandem, both the value of mobile money transactions and registered mobile money agents also increased thirteen and four folds, respectively in 2021. Another key development was that Ghana’s cash usage measured by currency in circulation as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined from 6.8% in 2016 to 4.7% in 2021.
In addition, Ghana’s cheque usage per capita, which was 25.67% in 2016 declined to 18.9% in 2021.