The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Limited is aiming at increasing its E-zwich subscriber base to one million by the end of 2009. Kwaku Tettey, Business Development Manager, GhIPSS, who spoke to BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview on Wednesday in Accra, said the card which currently boasts of about 300,000 subscribers was being targeted at businesses and people in the rural areas, especially through the money transfer and retail markets. Noting that banks constituted the leading subscribers of E-zwich presently, Mr Tettey stated, “It is best keeping money on the E-zwich. People can earn interest holding money on this card”. Introduced in April 2008, he said the card was gradually gaining popularity among urban dwellers, especially those who transacted business with the banks. A significant number of post offices have also been hooked onto the national platform. Recently, GhIPSS incorporated the payment of school fees using E-zwich cards in second and third cycle schools, installing E-zwich compliant Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and payment of public sector salaries onto E-zwich cards. The e-zwich, an electronic clearing and payment system, is designed to establish a common platform and link the payment systems of all banking and financial institutions in Ghana. It is an innovative and very secure way of paying for goods and services throughout Ghana. Additionally, it anchors on biometric (fingerprint) identification technology and allows smartcard holders to perform business and financial transactions such as fund loads and transfers, and payments for goods and services including bills, both online and offline. These can be done at any E-zwich point of sale (POS) or ATM across Ghana when the system becomes fully integrated and operational. Prior to the introduction of the E-zwich, the clearing and payment system in Ghana was for a long time manual. Almost a year and a half later, the economy can still be said to be mostly cash-based and heavily segmented. A unique feature of the E-zwich is its biometric feature which reduces the need to use figures for purposes of identification while guaranteeing the security safeguards of traditional banking. Cardholders only require authenticating a transaction in their fingerprint. This eliminates the problem of identifying theft associated with card transactions authenticated through the use of PINs. A person does not need to be a customer of a bank or have an account with a bank to have the E-zwich smartcard.