IT Consortium, Ghana’s number one ranked FinTech in the Ghana Club 100 in collaboration with Axis Pensions Trust has launched RemitPlus.

The product, RemitPlus is designed to allow Ghanaians have access to value added financial services such as pension’s contributions whenever they receive international remittances.

Other value offerings that come with RemitPlus include an embedded life cover of GH¢ 5,000 for contributors and access to loan facilities from partner financial institutions using pension contributions as collateral.

Speaking at the launch, the Managing Director of IT Consortium, Romeo Bugyei was excited about the potential RemitPlus offers to financially excluded citizens, particularly women.

“Data available to us shows that 70% of the formal working force in Ghana are not active pension contributors, while data from our other products show that 70% of people acquiring informal pensions are men, meaning that our women are being left behind,” he said.

He added: “We believe in the product and the value it gives to our citizens. It has the potential to lift more women out of poverty through the avenue to set money aside for pensions, and, that is something that really excites us.”

He noted that IT Consortium has been in the space of value added services for a long time and the company is working to ensure that pensions will not be the only added service.

“We are speaking with our banking partners to offer direct investments, hospital payments, school fees payment among others using this same platform,” he revealed.

IT Consortium developed RemitPlus through a grant known as the Remittance Grant Facility Fund; awarded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) together with the Ministry of Finance.

They worked in partnership with Axis Pensions Trust, SendWave, and Access Bank (Ghana) PLC, with KPMG as fund managers.

On his part, Group CEO of Axis Pensions Trust Ltd, Mr Afriyie Oware, expressed excitement about collaborations between Financial Institutions and FinTechs and the opportunities they offer to lower costs and design innovative products that are more financially inclusive.

Speaking on behalf of Access Bank (Ghana) PLC, the Divisional Head, Retail Banking, Stephen Abban, was convinced that the partnership with IT Consortium is a major step towards giving financially excluded people access to financial services.

He pledged the bank’s strong commitment to ensuring the success of RemitPlus.

With Ghana being the second largest receiver of remittance in sub-Saharan Africa, Zakaria Umar who spoke on behalf of the fund manager, KMPG indicated that sending remittances without hindrances is important for providing better quality food, health care and business support particularly for rural folk.

IT Consortium is one of Africa’s leading financial services technology solutions providers and was the first Ghanaian FinTech to obtain the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification in addition to its Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) certification.

More recently, it acquired the highest license within the Payment Services Provider (PSP) category, following the passage of the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987). 

IT Consortium is committed to the development of innovative services that make financial services accessible to financially excluded people.