These outlets are in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Central and Western regions and will soon cover the entire country. The volume of e-zwich transactions went up by over 100 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2015, while value of transactions was up by over 212 percent.

The increased volume of transactions has meant that the existing outlets offering e-zwich services, which are mainly all bank branches and ATMs may be inadequate. This has compelled the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) to partner private enterprises to offer e-zwich services.

Mr Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive of GhIPSS, said the inclusion of private enterprises in the offering of e-zwich services will bring a lot of convenience to cardholders. He said people will no longer need to go long distances to access e-zwich services. Mr Hesse said GhIPSS will continue to engage many enterprises to ensure that e-zwich services become very common.

Agents or merchants offering e-zwich services have the signage displayed and have been trained to enable them give off the best of services. Mr Hesse said the extension of e-zwich services to these outlets should gradually also put to an end to complaints by some cardholders of irregular services. He said with these new outlets, GhIPSS is ready for huge numbers using the card including any plans to bring public sector workers on board.

Currently about 47 different institutions use the e-zwich to make various payments including allowances, salaries and commissions with less than 10 of them being state institutions. The GhIPSS CEO urged the merchants offering the e-zwich service to be professional and deliver excellent customer services. He also urged other enterprises to freely contact GhIPSS to be able to offer this service as it holds good business prospects.