Archie Hesse
The Ghana Interbank Payment Systems (GhIPSS) will this year introduce the instant payment system to quicken the payment of a third party through the banking system.
This electronic payment system will enable money transferred from one account to another to be credited to the receiver instantly.
Presently, banks need to connect to it to offer the service to their customers.
This has become possible because of the national electronic platform that interconnects all the banks in the country, which is the core function of GhIPSS set up by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
Currently, transfers from one bank account to the other take not less than three hours even under express transactions through a system known as Direct Credit under the Automated Clearing House (ACH) and 24 hours if it is not under express transaction, which is also another initiative by GhIPSS.
But with the new product, a customer can request a transfer and it will hit the account of the recipient instantly.
Such a payment system will come in handy for businesses, which want a quick and safe way of making or receiving payments.
GhIPSS last year met banks in the country and discuss potential interbank electronic payment services that could be developed.
The instant payment stood out as the preferred product by the bankers in that meeting.
The Chief Executive of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse, said the interbank instant payment service will encourage businesses to use the banking system since they are assured of instant payment transaction from one bank account to another.
Mr. Hesse, who expressed optimism, said the banks will adopt it so that their customers can benefit from it.
A pilot programme will begin with a few banks before other banks will come on board.
Ghana has a huge unbanked population and many have argued that business people are keeping their monies outside the banking system because of the delays associated with banking.
By Samuel Boadi
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