[Ghana] Mobile money interoperability to take off in November

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has disclosed that Government is working to meet its November 2017 timeline for the implementation of mobile money interoperability.

The system when rolled out will allow consumers transfer money across the various networks in the country.

The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) has since been tasked to provide the platform for the mobile operators. It followed a botched agreement with Sibton Switch systems which had quoted 4.6 billion cedis as the cost for carrying out the mandate.

Dr. Bawumia made the disclosure when he addressed the first day of the National Policy Summit on Monday.

“The President asked me to challenge the industry to make sure that this year, interoperability is achieved. We have challenged them and they have responded very well.

In the last meeting we had with them, they showed us a road map and by the grace of God by November this year we will achieve interoperability of the financial sector in this country,” he asserted.

Mobile money interoperability forms part of efforts to drive the government’s financial inclusion agenda. This is also the third of three pillars that the Vice President believes will drive the NPP’s economic growth agenda.

The two include a robust national database with an effective identification system as well as a national digital address system. Dr. Bawumia who also heads the government’s economic management team is confident the financial inclusion drive should be achieved with an effective interoperability in the financial space.

“The third element is in the financial sector the payment system and we want to make sure that there is financial inclusion in this country but the key to that particular but a key to that particular area is to make sure that there is interoperability amongst the systems.”

GhIPSS to provide interoperable plaform The CEO of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), Archie Hesse earlier confirmed the contract by government to develop an interoperable platform for telecom operators, to Citi Business News.

This is however subject to the efficacy of GhIPSS’s options to government in operating an interoperable platform for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). “Currently if you are on MTN mobile money, you can work within the MTN sphere.

The role of GhIPSS is to ensure that we have interoperability; so you could have MTN and be able to pay someone on Tigo cash so interconnecting all the platforms and making them platform neutral,” CEO of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse told Citi Business News. “We were given six months so we intend to achieve that target,” he added.

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