Commercial Manager for iPay, Kwadwo Lartey is urging Ghanaians to embrace cashless transactions in a bid to reduce human contact amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The call is in line with recommendations by health experts as banknotes and coins are a medium for the spread of the novel coronavirus virus.

iPay Solutions Limited is a technology company empowering businesses and individuals with a one-stop-shop solution to make and receive payments, manage products, inventory and customer loyalty all in one account.

Since the inception of the Covid-19 cases in the country, organisations in various sectors are beginning to play catch-up with the virtual world following a near-global ban on social gatherings and the practice of social distancing.

Most businesses have had to go digital, execute work remotely from home or scale down direct contact with customers, necessitating the need to take most business activities online or cashless.

According to Mr Lartey, many fintech companies have risen to the occasion to fulfil the needs of such organisations which some may describe as distress.

“Some businesses have had to move their businesses from a typical brick and mortar module to an online model. So if you used to operate a shop where someone had to come in to buy something then you would have had to move it online or social media.”

His firm, iPay Solutions is in the business of rendering a service to fill the void created by the novel coronavirus.

Mr Lartey explains that: “now with people working from home and others are taking their business online, they need to find a way of managing financial transactions,” he said.

In Ghana, churches represent a chunk of the organisations affected by the ban on social gatherings. Congregations, communal service where tithes, donations, and offertories were paid manually. But as the pandemic would have it, this would never be the same.

The Commercial Manager of iPay believes that, whiles the churches find innovative ways to continue to engage congregants, iPay provides a medium to support the financial aspect including that of small businesses.

“We came up with a strategy to enable these businesses thrive by interacting with their customers… What we said was that whether you were selling online, through social media or through your own website, we will enable you to be able to accept electronic payment,” said Kwadwo Lartey.

The company says iPay also allows clients to sell online and accept payments from customers who do not even have a website, by creating an iPay payment link shareable on social media pages, via SMS or email.

Kwadwo Lartey, however, encouraged Ghanaians to stay home as much as possible and observe the social distancing and handwashing rules to help curb the spread of Covid-19.