The total value of transactions processed on various platforms managed by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS) witnessed some significant jump for last year. 

This was contained in its 2020 Market Performance Report released by GhIPSS.

According to the report, the total value of transactions processed in 2020 was GH¢254 billion, a 16% increase compared to the GH¢219 billion processed in 2019.

At the end of 2020, a total of 77 million transactions were processed across all platforms, compared to the 38 million transactions processed in 2019, representing a 103% increase.

Drivers of the growth

The report showed the growth was mainly driven by its real time payments managed by GhiPSS. 

One can talk about the The Real-Time Portfolio comprising, GhIPSS Instant Pay, Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI), Proxy Pay, GhQR recorded significant growth, closing the year with the strongest performance. 

The major contributor to this performance was MMI; processing a total of 43.9 million transactions, representing a 367% increase from 9 million processed in 2019.

The MMI performance was driven by three use cases namely: Transfers between wallets across Mobile Money Operators (MMOs); Transfers from mobile wallets to bank accounts and transfers from Mobile wallets to e-zwich Card wallets. 

The GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP) platform also recorded significant growth in both transfers from bank accounts to mobile wallets and transfers between bank accounts across banks. 

At the end of 2020, GIP transactions increased by 257% from 1.9 million in 2019 to 6.8 million. GhIPSS also recorded introductory transactions from new services such as Proxy Pay and GhQR code

COVID-19 and the GhIPSS numbers

According to the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System, the substantial performance was also influenced by the activities of COVID-19.

The report showed an upsurge in the use of these real-time services was largely influenced by Covid-19 related factors such as the 3-week lockdown which restricted the physical movements of people.

It also added that the public awareness through extensive education, discouraging the handling of physical cash was also a factor “encouraging the use of electronic alternatives as well as the incentivization from the financial services industry with fee waivers on their services.”

The data also showed that it wasn’t all rosy for GhiPSS, as some of its products were affected. 

One could talk about the clearing house product which was was impacted by the three weeks partial lock down as corporates that are the primary users of Cheques and ACH were unable to operate.

Additionally, industries such as manufacturing, hospitality, travel and education have not been able to return to normal operations resulting in reduced economic activity.

Outlook for 2021

According to the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System, the country is  seeing a growing adoption of non-cash payments among individuals.

It noted that in order to consolidate the gains made in 2020, GhIPSS will continue to pursue the cashlite Ghana agenda by deepening usage of existing digital payments platforms, while exploring other opportunities.

Some of the measures that it plans implementing, includes ;

1. Partner Financial Service Providers to roll out all new real time services to their customers.

2. Deepen usage through public education.

 3. Ensure continuous system availability and reliability.

GhIPSS  also added that it would also be working with partner institutions to extend the use of the ACH NRT, Proxy Pay, GIP Payment Gateway and the GhIPSS Corporate Suite to corporate institutions.

These services will provide Corporate Institutions with efficient payment options.