Ghana to merge mobile money firms by Nov

The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana, has been tasked by government to interoperate all mobile money companies by November this year. When done, mobile money users could send and receive money across networks.

CEO of GhIPSS , Mr Archie Hesse, disclosed this while speaking to journalists on the company’s achievements in the last 10 years.

He said: “So we will fully interoperate the four mobile money 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 ezwich wallet as well.”

He 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.

“With that we believe is going to create full convenience,” he said.

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 offered 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