Archie Hesse, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System
• Redrawing huge sums of money from banks can be a recipe for disaster
• Businesses, individuals have been urged to resort to digital means of money withdrawals
• The Bank of Ghana, Police and other stakeholders have met to address the movement of huge sums of money
Archie Hesse, Chief Executive of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) has called for enhanced educational campaign by banks and FinTech’s on the use of electronic payment transactions.
The call comes on the back of an increasing number of bank-related robbery attacks carried out on individuals who withdraw huge sums of money.
The GhIPSS boss in an interaction with Citi Business News said the educational campaign will provide extensive education and usage of available cashless payment solutions to avert robbery attacks.
“We have interoperability that has connected all mobile money wallets, all Fintech wallets, and all bank accounts together. You can seamlessly transfer money from any bank account to another bank account instantly, and you can seamlessly do same from a bank account into any mobile wallet and vice-versa. A lot of the banks have also connected their internet banking channel to the ACH clearinghouse for transfer of huge amounts,” Archie Hesse explained.
“So, all these things are there, if they weren’t, then we can complain. But they are all there. What is now needed is the banks, Fintechs and other service providers to educate their customers to try the platforms and start using them, a situation which will help in significantly reducing fraud and robberies associated with cash,” he added.
Over the past few months, some heavily armed persons have been meting out various attacks on persons who may have transacted business at some banks. This has heightened the level of insecurity in the country despite some arrests being made already.
So far, there have been stakeholder consultations with the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Association of Bankers and the Bank of Ghana to address the safety movement of money by individuals, banks and other financial institutions.
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