Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia
Ghanaians would be able to send money from one mobile network to another seamlessly from next week.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is expected to launch the mobile money interoperability system on Thursday, 10th May, this year.
The mobile money interoperability is the first phase of a bigger project that would ensure that the public can also transfer funds from their bank accounts to mobile money networks, as well as e-Zwich cards and vice versa in what is described as the financial inclusion triangle.
The move by the Ghana Interbank Payment and settlement Systems (GhIPSS), telcos and banks was in response to a challenge thrown by the Vice President Dr Bawumia last year for mobile money interoperability to become reality in Ghana.
While the original plan was to ensure that mobile money transfers and transactions were done across the various telcos, what is being worked on goes far beyond that.
However, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GhIPSS Archie Hesse, said the other two legs of the financial inclusion triangle will follow.
This will allow movement of funds from bank accounts to mobile money wallets and e-Zwich cards seamlessly.
Ghana, over the past decade, has been making frantic efforts at modernising the payment system through the establishment of GhIPSS as the institution leading the agenda.
GhIPSS, together with financial institutions, has introduced and operationalised electronic payments channels such as e-Zwich, Automated Clearing House (ACH), which has both Direct Credit and Direct Debit.
Cheques are now cleared electronically while there is gh-link interbank switching platform to make Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point of Sales (POS) devices interoperable and accessible by different bank cards.
Latest additions to the electronic payment channels are the Instant Pay and the e-bills pay that enable funds to be transferred across banks instantly.
The launch, which is a collaboration between GhIPSS, telcos and financial institutions, is expected to improve the financial sector.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Chamber of Telecoms, Kenneth Ashigbey, is upbeat about the eventual linkage among the three major platforms, namely bank accounts, mobile money and e-Zwich.
He noted that the seamless movement of funds across the various platforms should improve business delivery.
He urged businesses and government institutions to realign their systems so that the public will be able make payments using the various channels instead of cash.
“Increased Government-To-People and People-To-Government payments should be pushed further as the next frontier in the digitization and economic formalization agenda,” he added.
By Samuel Boadi