“So we will fully interoperate the four telecommunications companies by November so that we can also ensure that you can move funds from your mobile money wallet to the bank account and vice-versa, and to your e-zwich wallet as well,” Mr Archie Hesse, CEO of GhIPSS said.

Speaking to the media on the company’s achievements in the last 10 years he said GhIPSS had been tasked by the government to interoperate all mobile money companies by November this year.

When done he explained, mobile money users could send and receive money across networks.

Mr. Hessee said his outfit had already met the telecommunications companies on the interoperability and would soon meet commercial banks in the country to discuss the way forward.

Mr Hesse said being able to move funds freely from e-zwich, traditional bank account and mobile money wallets was going to be the financial inclusion triangle that GhIPSS would use to drive the idea of roping in a lot of the unbanked population into the banking sector and to ensure that transactions were also done in the electronic mode.

Mr Hesse called for a comprehensive awareness creation and education from the side of government, the main users of the payment system, to re-engineer and utilise the payment systems that had been created.

There is also the need to engage the banks, savings and loans, rural banks to ensure that they did not only offer a limited number of services available but offer the full bouquet of the products and services.

Education must also be extended to all other stakeholders, including corporate bodies, merchants and the public to move the agenda of cashless economy possible, he said.

On the company’s achievements over the past 10 years Mr Hesse said GhIPSS had made major strides to promote the agenda of a cash-lite economy since its establishment 10 years ago.

The company had contributed to the growth of Ghana’s financial sector with the development of electronic payment platforms.

He said GhIPSS had been able to implement a number of interventions to bring convenience to users of financial products and to also promote financial inclusion for the majority of unbanked population.

“If you look at the spread of payment services that we’ve managed to develop and operate at GhIPSS, I think over the last 10 years we’ve come a long way,” he said.

He said there was the growing realisation among the public that Ghana’s payment system was world class.

Among GhIPSS product is e-zwich, the cheque clearing system which reduce the cheque clearing cycle from three to 10 days to Same-day or Next Day, the Direct Credit and Direct Debit system that is helping companies sort out bulk and repetitive payments.

GhIPSS will mark the anniversary on the theme, ‘10 years of promoting electronic payments in Ghana.’

Activities planned include a public lecture on the evolution of payment systems in Ghana, a commemoration of the anniversary, where the Vice President will deliver a keynote address on the theme for the celebration.

In line with its mandate, GhIPSS has implemented and currently manages: e-zwich,a  cheque codeline clearing (CCC) system, automated clearing house (ACH) systems and national switching and processing system – gh-link.

GhIPSS was incorporated in May 2007 with a mandate to implement and manage interoperable payment system infrastructures for banks and non bank financial institutions in Ghana.

By David Adadevoh