Interoperability of payment system to roll in 2018

Technical works on the country’s interoperability payment system have been completed and will be launched in the first quarter of 2018.

The implementation of the system will enable persons using mobile phones and traditional bank accounts to communicate and send money across the various networks to facilitate the formalisation of the economy and promote financial inclusion.

At the opening of the 2017 Innovation Week of the Advanced Information Technology Institute of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Accra on December 5, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said about 70 per cent of the population currently were without bank accounts; therefore, with the implementation of the interoperability, it would make it possible to capture them into the formal economy.

Read Also: 232 Senior high schools score below 30% in WASSCE

“As a nation, we are supposed to innovate and enhance the growth strategy in order to overcome the fiscal limitations and create jobs and opportunities for all Ghanaians in the digital age, and no Ghanaian should be left behind in the ICT revolution,” he said.

The forum was designed to support the development of the ICT industry to provide opportunity for experts and enthusiasts to engage in conversations that would propel the country’s agenda of revolutionising the economy through digitisation.

It was also to provide a platform for interactions between academic and research institutions and industry, and promote competitive ICT and electronic industry in accordance with the government’s policy of developing global value-added and competitive services and position the nation as a regional ICT hub.

Public-private partnership

Dr Bawumia indicated that ICT was a powerful tool for sustained and rapid growth, which forward-looking leaders had used to solve problems all over the world, noting that the government would embrace public-private partnership in developing ICT infrastructure and reducing the cost of operations.

“The government is determined to make Ghana an ICT economy as enshrined in the ICT for Development Policy as part of the roadmap of becoming a smart nation.

“The government is promoting electronic governance to facilitate public governance and ensure quality service delivery,” he said.

Dr Bawumia said the civil service played a crucial role in the governance of the nation, and that the deployment of exponential technologies would be directed at its operations.

“This will improve the efficiency of government services, reduce operational cost and bring governance closer to the people.
“We are bringing governance to the people through e-governance initiatives, which have brought improvement in its day-to-day operations resulting in effectiveness and efficiency,” he added.

He said the implementation of the ICT Policy for Development would ensure the realisation of the vision to transform the nation into an information-rich knowledge-based economy through the development, deployment and exploitation of ICT within the economy and society.

Ghana’s payment system

The payment system is the entire matrix of institutional infrastructure arrangements and processes in the country set up to enable economic agents (individuals, businesses, organisations and government) initiate and transfer monetary claims in the form of commercial and central bank liabilities.

According to data from the Bank of Ghana, the country’s payment system has improved significantly since 1997 when the MICR cheques were introduced, and continues to evolve to meet the developmental needs of the country.

The current trend in the payment systems development is being driven by economic, financial, public policy factors, as well as a growing local ICT industry and global trends in payment systems development.

Objectives

The data acknowledged that the development of payment and settlement systems in the country was premised on the following key objectives: to prevent and or contain risks in payment, clearing and settlement systems; to establish a robust oversight and regulatory regime for the payment and settlement systems; to bring efficiency to fiscal operations of the government and deepen financial intermediation.

It also seeks to discourage the use of cash for transactions while encouraging the use of paper-based instruments for payments as part of the short-term development plan; to promote financial inclusion without risking the safety and soundness of the banking system; and to develop an integrated electronic payment infrastructure that will enhance interoperability of payment and securities infrastructure. — GB