About 10,000 people hold e-zwich smart cards

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA -Nearly 10,000 people have so far been issued with the e-zwich biometric smart card since its launch in April this year, an official of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GHIPSS) has said. Mr Archie Hesse, General Manager, Projects and Business Development of GHIPSS, told the Ghana News Agency at the launch of an e-zwich mass registration exercise in Accra on Saturday that over 2,000 merchants had also been registered during the period through the establishment of point-of-sale (POS) terminals and now accept the card for payment for various transactions.

The mass registration exercise being held on Saturday and Sunday, August 16 and 17, respectively, is to enable as many people as possible to get the card and to transact business with it. The "National Switch and Smartcard Payments System", dubbed: "e-zwich", is an initiative of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) and provides a common platform to link the payments of all the financial and non-bank financial institutions.

The system can be readily accessed, easy to use for savings, payments and transfers and the management of various business transactions.

The e-zwich was introduced in April with a few banks on pilot basis and was gradually extended to cover the other banks. Mr. Hesse said there had been no technical and operational hitches since the programme was launched in April. Mr. Hesse said the card could be used for funds deposits, cash transfer to another card, cash withdrawals, merchant settlement at end of business and the payment of utility bills. It is hoped that the nationwide accessibility of the e-zwich would reduce cash handlings, ensure personal safety in payment system due to its biometric authentication and eliminate inflationary price rounding-up practices.

In this direction, Mr. Hesse said GHIPSS would work on extending the regional reach of the cards through the mass registration exercise. This weekend's exercise will be the first in a series that will also be held in other parts of Accra, and other regional capitals, as well as major towns. Participating banks present at the event to register members of the public said they were encouraged by the high number of people willing to register and acquire the cards. 16 Aug. 08