GCB Bank Limited has partnered with Eliho Ghana Ltd. to facilitate the transfer and receipt of funds in the cocoa farming and purchasing ecosystem, using the G-Money platform.

The G-Money/Eliho partnership is an outcome of the Bank’s interest in providing financial inclusion for the partially banked and unbanked population of the country and to provide smooth financial operation support for Eliho and other supply chain networks and partners.

The G-Money platform will also enable Eliho to pay purchasing clerks (PCs) with virtual funds transferred onto their mobile wallets.

The PCs in turn are able to transfer the value of each farmer’s cocoa sales real-time onto their mobile wallets.

G-Money is telco-agnostic mobile money service that enables both customers and non-customers of GCB to transact using e-value received on their phones.

Eliho Ghana Ltd., in collaboration with Touton SA, which has been a trading partner of Ghana Cocoa Board for over 50 years and for the past two years has designed a comprehensive sustainable sourcing model where farmers in their supply chain have access to Rural Service Centers (RSCs) that serve as one-stop-shop at the district level.

This enables them to nurture a network of youth entrepreneurs called Cocoa Tech to deliver critical and essential services at the community level including access to finance among others.

The Eliho/Touton initiative has facilitated the onboarding of District Managers, Purchasing clerks and small holder farmers onto digital platforms for the digitisation of their financial transactions, which has been made possible by GCB’s G-Money services.

With this partnership all cocoa farmers producing for purchase by Purchasing Clerks (PCs) have the singular convenience of receiving payment for their produce via mobile transfer.

The service will significantly reduce the risk of loss of funds and eliminates the risk of theft resulting from carrying physical cash, along the value chain.

With the partnership, Eliho can access the service by both the Web portal and the use of a mobile handset.

At the official signing ceremony, The Managing Director of Eliho, Mr. Nicholas Kumah stated that the G-Money digital platform will provide great relief to the supply chain through the secured consolidated cocoa District Managers Account, ensuring the real time availability of monies to purchasing clerks.

"This enhances transparency, accountability, traceability and security. This platform will also reduce financial misappropriation due to the shortened time in converting released cash into cocoa and sold back to COCOBOD" he said.

The Deputy Managing Director of Finance, GCB, Mr. Socrates Afram, expressed his excitement about the partnership as the service would ensure availability, access, and the smooth transfer and payment of funds.

He described the G-Money platform as fast, secure, efficient and reliable for all users, adding that it would offer convenience for all stakeholders in the cocoa supply chain.