According to AfricaNenda, Ghana is the only Country in Africa to have performed excellently in mobile money interoperability.

This was revealed during the ongoing Mobile World Congress Africa 2022 in Kigali- Rwanda.

In the event, Ghana was honoured as the only Country to have achieved 100% financial inclusion in the Africa region.

This was based on a report by AfricaNenda dubbed ‘State of Inclusive Instant Payment in Africa Report’.

The report which was launched during the event observed the instant payment systems of 12 African Countries and amongst the 12, Ghana was the only Country that scored perfect marks on access to financial inclusion.

The report which focused on the instant payment modules available in these 12 African Countries was also particular on the various similarities and differences that exists in these methods.

The report also made recommendations on good and workable financial inclusion methods which Countries in the continent can adopt to achieve financial inclusion.

How Did Ghana Achieve this Feat

Ghana’s mobile money interoperability (MMI) platform which integrates all payment platforms across banks, fintechs and telcos was the reason for Ghana’s impressive performance.

Present at the event was Mr. Archie Hesse, head of Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS), the state-owned agency in charge of Ghana’s digitalization drive.

Mr. Hesse explained that, Ghana’s journey towards financial inclusion started by an attempt to integrate three instant payment platforms into what he called the “financial inclusion triangle.”

GhIPSS according to Mr. Hesse, started by first integrating banks to make them interoperable using the GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP).

Later, GhIPSS introduced e-zwich, a biometric payment system. The e-zwich was also made interoperable, then finally, GhIPSS integrated the mobile money operators into an interoperable platform.

Mr. Hesse said after the three independent interoperable systems were fully functional, GhIPSS then integrated the three systems together such that, transactions could be done from one to the other.

“What we then did was to close the triangle by making all the three platforms interoperable to ensure that no matter who is making payment and from wherever, they will be able to do so seamlessly and instantly.”
Archie Hesse

Mr. Hesse also mentioned that, after GhIPSS successfully integrated banks, e-zwich and mobile money operations, it went on to add other services all with the aim of achieving financial inclusion.

GhIPSS has added services like Proxy Pay, Internet Gateway Payment, Request to Pay and a Universal QR Code called GHQR, which can be linked to both bank accounts and digital wallets, with affordability as the key driving force.

Another thing GhIPSS has done over the period is to create the GhanaPay system. GhanaPay according to Mr. Hesse is a bank-wide wallet that ensures that banks play a role in the mobile money space.

Mr. Hesse however disclosed that, even with all these financial inclusion measures that has been instituted to ease business transactions, Ghana still has a gap of about 32% of people who have not yet benefited from them.

He said that, the gap is mainly due to education and so regular public education, it won’t be long for GhIPSS to reach its ultimate target.