The Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on Wednesday June 15, 2022, launched the GhanaPay Mobile Money Service in Accra.
The GhanaPay is the first bank-wide mobile money service by universal banks,
rural banks as well as savings and loans companies to individuals and
businesses.
The GhanaPay service, which operates like the existing mobile money service,
with additional banking services, is opened to everyone with access to a mobile
phone (including a yam phone) with or without a traditional bank account.
Speaking at the launch, Vice President Bawumia described the introduction of
the GhanaPay mobile money service as "another groundbreaking
initiative", as the service, he added, further expands the government's
vision for financial inclusion for all Ghanaians through digital banking.
"One of the biggest challenges that we faced as a country was the huge
unbanked population. For a long time, over 70 percent of the adult population
was unbanked. However, thanks to reforms in the payment channels, we have
significantly reduced the unbanked population," said the Vice President.
"It is heartwarming to know that the banking sector is increasingly
looking for ways to extend financial inclusion to all Ghanaians. It is clear
that the entire economy is being transformed to what I want to call from
analogue to digital. The benefits of this transformation, which is literally
sweeping across every sector of the economy, are enormous and we can readily
see and experience some of the benefits," he added.
"Let me therefore commend the Ghana Association of Banks, GhIPSS and all
institutions that from the very beginning, believed in this vision and have
supported it all through to this point
"At the rate at which Ghana is adopting digitisation, it is clear that in
the near future, almost every part of our lives will be driven by digitisation."
While commending banks and other stakeholders for coming together to introduce
the GhanaPay, Dr. Bawumia was optimistic greater financial inclusion will soon
be achieved in the country through digital financial service.
"I am particularly excited that the banks have closed their ranks and come
together to introduce a shared electronic wallet, which has been christened
GhanaPay. I see this as a huge avenue for banks to rapidly bring more people
into the banking space"
"GhanaPay takes care of the bottlenecks associated with opening of formal
bank accounts, so the banks should be able to use the GhanaPay platform to
massively reduce the traditionally unbanked population."
"I know we can bring it (number of unbanked Ghanaians) down further and
one of the channels to achieve this is through digital financing services; that
is leveraging the increasing adoption and usage of the mobile wallet
because of its ease of use."
The GhanaPay, which is positioned between mobile money, offered by telcos and
banking, offered by banks, can be downloaded on Google Play Store or on Apple
Store.
Just like the existing mobile money services, the GhanaPay, once registered,
can be used to send and receive money to and from mobile networks and bank
accounts. It can also be used to cash in and cash out, buy airtime, data, and
also pay for goods and services through a GhQR merchant.
By launching the GhanaPay mobile money service, Ghana has achieved another
digital payment landmark by becoming the first country in the world to
implement a bank-wide mobile money service.
Source: Peacefmonline.com