e-Zwich Cards For Cocoa Farmers


The use of e-Zwich cards is expected to increase significantly soon, as cocoa farmers are expected to be brought on board.

Holders of e-Zwich cards would find it a lot easy to use their biometric smart cards, following the rollout of a number of initiatives, including Automated Teller Machines (ATM), hybrid Point of Sales (POS) terminals and the offer of e-Zwich services at all banks.

Currently, the Student Loan Scheme disburses money onto the cards of beneficiaries while National Service allowances are also paid onto the card, besides the payment of wages and commissions by some private companies.

Also, workers on government payroll in the Greater Accra region will soon be paid onto their e-Zwich cards to curb the incidence of ghost names.

Speaking in an interview, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), Archie Hesse said work was on going to ensure easy access to e-Zwich services.

He said the existing ATMs would be made e-Zwich compliant by installing fingerprint readers on them.

He mentioned that the conversion of the ATMs began with Ecobank’s ATMs.

‘If you go to the Ecobank ATM at University of Ghana, you will see the fingerprint reader and we would have more of such throughout the country’, he indicated.

He said GhIPSS was working with at least four banks to convert all their ATMs to be e-Zwich compliant.

In addition to the ATMs, he said GhIPSS was rolling out POS terminals that accept both e-Zwich and local ATM cards.

Over 100 of such POSes have been deployed at key outlets including shopping centres, restaurants, fuel stations, pharmacies and hotels.

Mr. Hesse also said that Bank of Ghana (BoG) had also directed all universal banks, Rural and Community banks, as well Savings and Loans companies to ensure that all of their branches offer e-Zwich services from the end of June.

Meanwhile, GhIPSS continues to introduce cards to the younger population so they can cultivate acquire the habit.

The recent enrolment and issuance of e-Zwich cards to second cycle institutions, undertaken just about a week ago, covered 1,641 students from Accra Technical Training Centre, St John’s Grammar both in Accra, and Apegusu in the Eastern Region.

A business desk report
 

Comments:
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.