AfCFTA: Ghana readies GhIPSS for seamless integration with PAPSS
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), Archie Hesse, says his outfit is working tirelessly to ensure intra-African payments from and to Ghana are smooth once the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) becomes fully operational.
PAPSS, when implemented, according to the African EXIM Bank is expected to save the continent more than $5 billion in payment transaction cost each year. Implementation of the PAPSS kick started in September this year.
Speaking on the country’s readiness for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in an interview, Mr Hesse noted with regards to payment for goods and services under the AfCFTA, all is being done to ensure that Ghana is not left behind when the PAPSS system becomes fully operational.
“The role that we are going to play as the national switch is to connect to the PAPSS system. I know the Central Bank is taking a lead with that to design the flow and how we can all play in that space. But effectively all interbank transactions will emanate from the various financial institutions through GhIPSS to the Central Bank that is also connected to the PAPSS system and they will facilitate inter-country payment on our behalf.”
“What we are going to do is to support the Central Bank in that regard and ensure that our system is connected to the PAPSS system. I know our team is working with the PAPSS system to ensure that connection is done. We are in the process and working to ensure that Ghana is not left behind,” he added.
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Meanwhile, GhIPSS in the first nine months of this year recorded a growth of over 146.1 percent in the volume of transactions in the first nine months of 2021.
GhIPSS third quarter performance report shows that 125.8 million transactions were processed from January to September this year compared to 51.1 million transactions over the same period in 2020.
The value of the transactions for the same period, however, recorded a lower growth of 36.1 percent to 241.5 billion cedis.
The very high growth in volume strongly suggests that more people are patronizing electronic payment channels, an indication that the cash-lite agenda is on course.
The GhIPSS third quarter performance report also shows that almost all GhIPSS services recorded growth in volume and value of transactions.
The report also demonstrates that the public continues to strongly prefer real time electronic payments.
The GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP) platform (including GhQR), which ensures that interbank payments or transfers are received instantly, posted the highest growth in volume of transactions.
It went up as high as 407.66 percent from about 4.3 million to almost 22 million transactions in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year.
