Eyram Boafor is a business owner and an entrepreneur whose food business requires many payments, both to vendors from which she purchases vegetables and groceries for her salads and customers who have to pay for services rendered.
So, what better way than to use online payment systems, including mobile money and bank app transactions? It makes everything much easier, she says.
“It has really helped with dealing with customers. Sometimes you don’t have the cash but with the e-money, you’re able to make payments. I can easily track my inflows and outflows.
“From the comfort of my shop, I can buy groceries from my suppliers and pay them without going all the way there. Saves me time which I use to do extra work for the business,” Eyram intimated to Laud Adu-Asare.
That’s just one aspect of the convenience that online payment applications and systems have brought to Ghanaians.
The rapid expansion of these payment systems in Ghana is gradually shifting the way individuals and businesses conduct financial transactions.
With a majority of the country’s population falling between ages 15-49 years, the adoption of digital or online payment systems remains on the ascendency.
From mobile money platforms like MTN MoMo and Vodafone Cash to digital banking services and fintech innovations, the shift to cashless transactions is creating opportunities, boosting financial inclusion, and redefining commerce.
Virtually everything can be paid for within minutes and from any part of the country regardless of one’s location. All one needs is a phone, and sometimes, an internet connection, particularly in cases where the bank apps will be used.
“I use my bank app to pay for almost everything I buy especially from online platforms. Just yesterday, I ordered a few dresses from some online vendors and all I had to do was pay with my bank app and confirm my details as well as the payment details to them and the transaction was done. Aside from the petty charges from my bank, it’s very convenient to use and I get to do this from the comfort of my home,” Emma Mawuenyegah, a remote worker said.
Utilities including electricity credits and water charges can now be purchased and paid for directly using online payment systems introduced by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).
Although Naa Oyoe Kengia uses the old billing system, she tells us that she’s been happy since she learned about the option to pay her monthly electricity bills via the ECG Power App, which allows customers to pay for prepaid and postpaid electricity via a simplified payment process.
“The experience has been good because it’s very fast and convenient. I don’t have to go to any of the ECG offices to go and pay the bills. I can do it from the comfort of my home or wherever I find myself. It’s such a relief,” she noted.
Stanley Blewu, a regular user of digital payments, said he has been mostly impressed with the ECG app and outlined its process.
“To buy credit for an ECG prepaid meter using the ECG PowerApp, you first have to download and log in to the app using your Ghana mobile number. Next, select Buy Credit for the saved prepaid meter then enter the amount of credit you want to buy.
This is followed by choosing a payment option and then you confirm the transaction and view the receipt. The option for recourse and complaint, Stanley intimates, helps users to put across any concerns associated with the app.
“If the transaction fails, the app has a complaint portal where you can report it or wait for a refund.”
Digital marketing expert Alice Mensah attributes the high adoption of digital payments to regulatory support and efforts by telecommunication companies to promote the use of smartphones.
“Those days not everyone could afford a smartphone because it was expensive but now, they’re relatively okay as compared to those days. Manufacturing companies have also made things very affordable for us.
“Better internet access such as 4G and 5G have also helped immensely. Those days they were very expensive. We don’t have the quality we need but for now, all that has improved.
“Also, regulatory support. At first, if you were an MTN user and I wasn’t you couldn’t transfer money to me. But now because of regulatory support, there is telco interoperability which supports such transactions. It’s done so swiftly that you wouldn’t even realise it,” Mrs Mensah observed.
As part of efforts to improve inclusion and ease the provision of government services, the government launched a central portal hosting several institutions and agencies.
Ghana.gov is the official digital services and payments platform where citizens, businesses, and organizations can access state services, make payments, and interact with various public institutions seamlessly and transparently.
The platform was developed through a collaboration between the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), with technical support from local fintech firms and technology partners.
Institutions such as the Passport Office, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Lands Commission, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the National Information Technology Authority, the Registrar General’s Department, the National Schools Inspectorate Authority and the National Service Authority have begun operations on the platform for their payments and revenue collection. Individuals can also log on to the portal to acquire services after payments.
Chief Executive Officer of Heritors Labs Limited, Derrydean Dadzie also commended the concept of the Ghanagov platform initiative, describing it as a step in the right direction.
“Ghanagov.gh offers you the infrastructure and a certain level of aggregation for all these services for citizens to see them easily. So, one, easy discovery of these services. And two, there is easy access to this service and payment for these services. That means that if you can see them, you can access them, if you have the means, you can actually pay for them and then use them.
“So, it then takes away things like corruption that comes with handling cash. It brings convenience to the citizens. They don’t have to go and join queues to have access to government services. It also provides government with better approaches to mobilizing revenues and being more accountable to revenues mobilized from its citizens. And in terms of reporting, there’s more data that government can learn from and then make decisions for the future. On that score, ghana.gov is a tremendously great platform for citizens’ interaction with government services.”
Beyond Ghana
As a result of the evolution and emerging technologies around the world, online payment systems are also providing accessibility for traders and businesses whose transactions extend beyond the borders of Ghana.
Business owners who liaise with clients and customers outside Ghana can now access payment platforms including PayPal, and FlutterWave among others or simply use their bank visa or master card options to pay for goods and services. This also applies to the ordinary Ghanaian who may want to order or employ the services of a business outside of the country.
The Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), in 2018, introduced Mobile Money Interoperability as part of efforts to facilitate digital payments seamlessly.
This allowed all telecommunication networks to be interoperable, meaning payments could be made from bank accounts to mobile money wallets and vice versa.
The move formed part of the Akufo-Addo government’s efforts to reduce cash as the predominant mode of payment, drive financial inclusion and reduce the number of unbanked populations in Ghana.
Despite the gains made by the Ghanagov platform the technology entrepreneur, Derry Dean Dadzie called for more innovative ways to help citizens access services more seamlessly.
“For me, the way I see Ghana gov and how it should evolve is by providing open APIs so that government, on one hand, provides protocols open APIs as a specific framework around which different payments and providers can utilize to offer government services to citizens, and not necessarily always coming from one website.
“It should be a service API or some form of access protocol that Ghanaians or Ghanaian service payment service providers can actually have access to, and if they comply, if they meet all the requirements can then tunnel all these services onto their own platforms, innovate around it, and then ensure that find their own ways of marketing it to the citizens so they can have access to it,” Dadzie opined.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
Source:
3news.com
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