Government will this year launch a new payment method using universal QR codes, the Vice President has announced. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia announced this next level of government’s digitisation agenda on Saturday at the closing ceremony of the  2019 Diaspora Celebration and Homecoming summit in Accra. The Ghana Diaspora Celebration & Homecoming Summit 2019 is to recognise and celebrate the immense contributions to nation building and focus on present contributions as well as furthering the advocacy for political, economic, and all other systems and policies that would facilitate future contributions by the Ghanaian Diaspora. "This year, there's going to be also a remarkable introduction into Ghana of a universal QR Code for payments.  This will help us move further into the cashless direction because there will be no longer any need for merchants to have a point of sales devices, with the QR Code platform. All they need is a mobile phone and even a "yam phone" will work " he said. "With your mobile phones, you can make payments and it goes straight to the bank account of the merchants and. If all goes well, Ghana's universal QR CODE platform will be introduced by the fourth quarter this year," Dr Bawumia emphasised. The universal QR code is the world’s first inter-operable payment acceptance solution. It provides customers with an easy option for digital payment on business transactions which reduces the technological challenges associated with operating cashlite society.  The universal QR Code will allow merchants to receive digital payments without the use of Point of Sale devices. Countries that have recently introduced universal QR CODE platforms include Singapore which introduced it in 2018, India and China