GhIPSS advocates more electronic transactions. ... As uniBank launches ‘Smile’

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), Mr Archie Hesse, has said it is unfortunate that Ghanaians are fighting electronic payments systems instead of embracing it.

He said worldwide everyone was moving towards a cash-light transaction regime and although Ghana was a pioneer in the transformation dream, other countries have now taken the lead.

Speaking at the launch of an electronic mobile banking product, “Smile,” by uniBank Ghana Limited in Accra, he said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) spent so much on monthly basis to print currency, manage and decommission it. 

He said if Ghanaians should use electronic payments  more, and save about 50 per cent of the amount spent, there would not be a need to borrow money from anybody and there will still be enough for health, education and other needs.

“The world over if we go to Japan, Sweden and others, cash transactions are well below 0.5 per cent, and if you go to the United Kingdom and Germany, it’s somewhere around 20 per cent.”

“GhIPSS wish to see us move away from overreliance on cash though not to say that we will never use cash but we need to get to a point where more effective and secure forms of payment are possible through the various electronic platforms that are available,” he said.  

Mr Hesse said the GhIPSS was working hard to create the central infrastructure that was needed to ensure that cash-light transaction was achieved. 

Smile product 

uniBank’s ‘’Smile’’ service uses unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) technology that allows users with all kinds of mobile devices to access the bank’s services by dialing *924♯ short code. 

It gives customers of the bank access to their accounts, be able to effect transfers and pay for services and products that they have enjoyed, all in the comfort of their homes. 

Users can purchase mobile airtime top-up for themselves and others; they can transfer funds between accounts within uniBank and to other banks. 

This smile service again gives customers and non-customers the chance to form a group and contribute from their mobile money wallets, uniBank accounts and visa/MasterCard for a common purpose, all from their mobile phones. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Felix Nyarko-Pong, said the launch of the smile was part of the bank’s commitment to ensure the entire Ghanaian society becomes cash-light, as there are indications that physical  bank notes might  be extinct in the next 20 years. 

“At the moment many of the payments taking place are without physical notes. That is why in our pursuit as a bank of excellent customer service to be innovative we have come out with smile which nurtures modern lifestyle with banking by creating a 24/7 access to banking services to all of our customers, and others who will sign up to the product through the use of the person’s own mobile phone or tablet,” he said. 

Customer benefits 

The Head of E-Business at uniBank, Ms Gifty Blay, said smile offered users the convenience of banking transactions anywhere from any mobile device and saved them a visit to the banking hall. 

She added there was a pin protection which did not allow unauthorised access to users’ account or transactions. — GB