The Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) has introduced another innovation to complement Mobile Money and banking services.

Known as GhanaPay, it has a feature that that will integrate banking services including rural banking and mobile banking.

Chief Executive of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse, in an interview with Joy Business said the platform will be used to tackle the challenge facing the rural unbanked population.

According to him, this is critical for the digital economy agenda.

“This initiative gives the banks an opportunity of a platform to issue mobile money account to customers and individuals that can’t secure banking account for one reason or the other. So we don’t rely solely on the fintechs and mobile money agents for transactions on the mobile money platform”, he said.

The introduction of GhanaPay complements the measures to accelerate Ghana’s migration to electronic payments and encourage the banking sector to collaborate and further explore more pioneering ways to attain greater efficiency in the payments ecosystem.

In a speech to launch the System, Vice President, Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, announced that the new digital age requires collaboration from all stakeholders including the financial services providers in ensuring a secured payment eco system.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, described the entry of Ghana Pay as a helpful tool to support the financial payment eco system.

“With the introduction of GhanaPay, the banking sector can address this market gap through continuous collaboration to expand merchant acceptance with greater focus on lower tier merchants. There is no doubt that the appropriate support for the payment systems value chain and public education, infrastructure light solutions such as the GhanaPay, can boost electronic payment acceptance.

The introduction of the GhanaPay is laudable, but there is still more room for expansion and banks must step up efforts to digitise the value chain for both merchants and users through digitisation of payments to distributors.

Wholesalers and retail outlets

GhanaPay will allow consumers to have both mobile money and banking services on their mobile phone at no extra cost except the payment of Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) whenever a transaction is done.