‘Mobile money interoperability scored 3000 transactions on first day’ – Archie Hesse

The mobile money interoperability since its launch on May 10 has had about 3000 transactions.

According to Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHiPSS), these figures can also be verified by the mobile money operators.

He said these operators could give the statistics on their customers who have crossed over and doing business using the mobile money interoperability.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast show he said GHiPSS has the figures and would not mind publishing it.

“I am quite happy to share the volumes with you if I remember correctly the first the day we launched it, that day, in particular, we had over 3000 transactions that went through the switch. We have the figures, so maybe we should publish it,” he said.

Archie Hesse also noted that the figures are not going up in an arithmetic rate but at a geometric rate.

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS), Archie Hesse stated a loan of 4.5 million dollars from the Bank of Ghana to implement the mobile money interoperability project.

According to him, the BoG gave the funds to the company with set benchmarks for the next five years to enable GHIPSS to pay back the loans.

The clarification comes after calls to GhIPSS to disclose how much the project will cost ordinary Ghanaians.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia launched the first phase of the mobile money interoperability system on the 10 of this month.

The mobile money interoperability, which will be managed by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), will enhance financial inclusion as the country’s payment system is formalised to make electronic payments easier.

The phase one of the interoperability will also allow mobile customers to move money from their mobile money accounts to bank accounts and vice versa.

Initial ‘killer’ deal

In January 2017, the issue of mobile money interoperability came to the fore when telecom operators kicked against moves by the central bank to impose a third-party company to implement the interoperability.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) is said to have contracted Sibton Switch Systems to act as the switch for the cross-network mobile money transactions, with additional cost implications for both consumers and the telcos.

Sibton Switch Systems, the company, which won interoperability contract justified the GHc 4.6 billion cost of the project.

The company’s GHc 4.6 billion price tag was the most expensive among the companies that bid for the project.

According to the tender documents seen by Citi News while the Sibton Switch Systems’ bid for amounted to GHc 4.6 billion,  two offers in the contract totalled to GHc 14 million and GHc 5.4 million from Vals Intel Limited and Mericom Solutions Limited respectively.

The Vice President Bawumia later disclosed that the new interoperability system would cost the country less than $4 million after the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems took charge of the project.

The company was given a GHc 4.6 billion contract for a project.

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By: Farida Yusif/citinewsroom.com/Ghana

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