The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), Mr. Archie Hesse, has revealed that as it stands now, “there is no payment systems-type in the world that Ghana does not have.”
Given the mandate to migrate Ghana into a cashless society, Mr. Hesse intimated that his outfit has propelled Ghana’s chances in this regard, considering firstly, the kind of products and services that have been adopted over the years coupled with the expansion of usage of these products and services.
These, he said, have been progressively undertaken since Ghana decided to go cashless more than a decade ago.
Speaking in an interview, he hinted that, tables have now turned in Ghana’s favor, such that, countries which hitherto his outfit were understudying years ago, in a bid to replicate same in Ghana, are now seeking to imitate what GHIPSS has implemented so far.
“…some of the countries that we visited in order for us to charter our course, where they were we had to understudy them and we now have the reverse, and so that is a very clear indication that we have actually done what we are supposed to do, gone past them and they are now coming to understudy what we have done.”
Evidently, Ghana has rolled out quite a number of payment systems over the years. It is only a recent phenomenon that, we have had a significant number of firms and households transacting businesses and making payments with these varying payment systems.
This year alone, the Bank of Ghana estimates there has been an overall increase in the use of payment systems.
However, it may be recalled that, during the MPC meeting by the Central bank, its governor, Dr. Ernest Addison admitted that the spike in the volumes of transactions on the payment systems were largely due to the ripple effects from the health crisis on economic activities- a force majeure.
Essentially, countries named as having the potential to be leaders of a cashless economy by 2022 include; Finland, Sweden, China, South Korea, United Kingdom, Australia. As such, cash is gradually phasing out of use in both rural and urban areas, as Globaldata finds.
For instance, in Sweden, more aggressive measures are being introduced, such as signs that say “No cash is accepted” in shops and some banks. Also, in some developing countries like India, some currency denominations are banned from usage in an effort to push the agenda towards a cashless society.
Obviously, Ghana has not implemented all payment systems in the world and still has a long way to go in dealing with the long-standing culture of people using cash for transactions.
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