The enrolment of enterprises and individuals to offer e-Zwich services is underway i underway n major towns in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The move is to make e-Zwich services available to as many people as possible.
A team from the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) is presently in the Brong Ahafo Region enrolling agents in Sunyani, Brekum, Techiman and Goaso.
Patronage of e-Zwich services has gone up following its usage by both private and public sector institutions to pay various forms of emoluments.
The volume of transaction between January and March, this year was a little over 2 million compared to about 750,000 transactions during the same period in 2016, according to the first quarter performance report by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd (GhIPSS).
This represents a growth of 170 percent.
The report also indicates that the value of transactions was up at over GH¢655 million in the first quarter of the year compared to GH¢428 million for the same period last year.
Following the increased usage of the biometric smartcard, GhIPSS has been training and setting up agents.
e-Zwich cardholders can go to these agents to withdraw, transfer or load cash onto their cards.
The agents will complement the financial institutions who until this initiative, were the only providers of e-Zwich services.
Gertrude Ati, who is leading the GhIPSS team, said every effort is being made to bring e-Zwich services closer to the people.
She said the creation of e-Zwich agents also presents business opportunities to the prospective agents.
So far over 300 agents have been set up nationwide and GhIPSS hopes to add another 60 from the Brong Ahafo Region.
The team from GhIPSS will visit other regions to set other agents up.
Apart from the agents and banks, some ATMs are being converted to accept e-Zwich cards. This is evident by the fingerprint readers on the ATMs.
e-Zwich has proven to be efficient and cost-effective for companies, which have employees dotted across the country.
The card’s ability to work offline also makes it extremely useful in rural areas where network connectivity is a challenge.
A business desk report