… as Vice President launches mobile money interoperability
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that merchants in the country would be able to use PayPal by the second half of 2019, according to the road map presented by PayPal.
He made this disclosure at the launch of the Mobile Money interoperability system.
Dr. Bawumia disclosed that the country had concluded discussions with PayPal and would therefore become one of the PayPal compliant countries in the world.
This will allow Ghanaian merchants to be able to receive payments for their goods online.
“It is now up to us; the banks, telcos, fintech [companies] and merchants to make this happen within the time frame. And also to prepare ourselves for the opportunities it presents.”
Dr. Bawumia revealed GhIPSS will put together a working group to ensure that this happens within the time frame.
This, among other developments in the financial sector, will be a major boost in e-commerce in the country.
In launching the Mobile Money interoperability payment systems, Dr. Bawumia disclosed these are into two phases.
In the first phase, mobile money customers will be able to move monies from one mobile money account to a different mobile money account across networks. They can also move money from their mobile money accounts to their bank accounts without any hustle.
Furthermore, from the banks’ side, customers can move money from their bank accounts to their mobile money accounts.
He noted that, with just phase one, the country overtakes systems being run in Tanzania and Kenya.
Under phase two of interoperability, the financial inclusion triangle would be completed by allowing for the movement of monies between and amongst telcos, banks and e-Zwich accounts in a seamless manner that flows back to back.
This is expected to be completed in the next two months.
“We should build both a commercial vision and an ecosystem around it,” he said.
He urged the financial institutions, telcos and fintech to find innovative ways of turning mobile phones and the mobile money platforms into vehicles of economic emancipation.
By Joshua W. Amlanu
