Use of Ghana Card for financial transactions to boost growth of banking sector – GAB
Commercial banks in the country have indicated that the use of the Ghana Card for financial transactions will boost growth of the banking sector.
The Bank of Ghana has said that starting July 1, 2022, the National Identification Card (Ghana Card) will be the sole card accepted by regulated financial institutions for transactions.
The directive contained in a notice to licensed and regulated financial institutions, the apex bank notes, is pursuant to Regulation 7 of the National Identity Register, 2012 (L.I. 2111).
The Central Bank in view of its notice, has urged regulated financial institutions to update their customer records with the Ghana Card.
“In line with this notice, Section 30 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044) and Regulation 12 of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 1987), all financial institutions shall take steps to update customer records with the Ghana Card,” it stated.
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“Customers of Bank of Ghana regulated financial institutions are therefore advised to update their records with their respective financial institutions with the Ghana Card on line with this notice,” it added.
“The public is to note that no other form of identification will be accepted for financial transactions in all Bank of Ghana regulated financial institutions after the effective date,” the BoG stressed.
However, there are fears that financial inclusion and opening of new bank accounts could suffer as more persons are yet to get their national ID Cards.
But the Chief Executive of the Ghana Association of Bankers, John Awuah, indicated that this move by the Bank of Ghana will rather make it simple for Ghanaians in terms of financial transactions.
“Ghana Card can only be a positive development for account opening process, in order to open an account, we will have to be asking you to bring another person who holds accurate account or drawing to your location or place of abode or your place of business and all kinds of ways to identify you because we did not really trust the ID system that we presently use but Ghana Card has all these features embedded.
“So your location is embedded, your drivers license, your other forms of ID. So it should be relatively easier under the regime of the Ghana Card for customers to open an account or do banking business.
“You don’t have to worry carrying all forms of IDs with you, with just the Ghana Card you should be able to do this and of course since it pins you to a location, the era of drawing a map to your residence or the map to your business location I’m sure is behind us when we go live’, he said.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana has indicated that it may consider extending the July 1 deadline depending on how things turn out in the coming six months.
