The Bank of Ghana last Thursday unveiled a comprehensive roadmap document that it believes will lead to enhancement of existing payment systems in the country.
The goal of the Strategic Payments Roadmap for Ghana, a paper commissioned by the central bank, is meant to build on the current payment systems infrastructure to reduce the dependence on cash for transactions.
The paper put together by Standard Chartered Bank is divided into four segments: namely, Laying the Foundation; Making Use of What is Already There; Building for the Future; and Innovating for 2019 and Beyond.
The roadmap was presented to the central bank at a ceremony attended by Deputy Governor Millison Narh as well as Mona Quartey, Deputy Finance Minister, among other dignitaries from the financial services industry.
According to Mr. Narh, the promotion of a cash-lite economy is the collective responsibility of all stakeholders involved in the development of payment ecosystems.
“This will require appropriate policies that promote investment and innovation, and also smart plans from both the private and public sectors,†he added.
The Payment Systems Act, 2003, empowered the BoG to play a pivotal role in establishing, operating and promoting payments systems.
Key to the realisation of the goals set out in the roadmap is establishment of a Payments Council.
According to the document, the council will act as the “principal decision-making body with a broad membership for those who run the financial systems, provide financial services, and consumers of those services. We believe that the diversity in Ghana’s payment system will be well-addressed with the appointment of a formal payments council, which will be the rightful owner of the strategic payments roadmapâ€Â.
The council is expected to be made up of representatives from GhIPSS, banks, financial institutions, the Ghana Stock Exchange, major corporate bodies, as well large merchants and retail consumers.
The roadmap, in making use of existing payment platforms, proposes the re-launching of existing services such as mobile payments. Three of the six mobile telecommunications companies operate mobile money services whereby customers can send and receive funds using the companies’ platforms.
In addition to the re-launch of these services, the council proposed that existing e-payment platforms enhance their value-added services to drive popularity.
Another target of the Strategic Roadmap is more support for electronic payment services such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Customer-to-Business (C2B) and Business-to-Business.
According to the document, “In order to be successful, scheme rules need to be established and understood by stakeholders; and the banks’ systems need to be capable of real-time rather than batch processingâ€Â.
The roadmap also focuses on upgrading existing payment systems provided by GhIPSS and merging with existing systems in other West African countries.
By Richard Annerquaye Abbey | B&FT Online | Ghana
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