The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), has given indication that it will cost the country relatively cheaper with the provision of mobile money interoperability.
According to GhIPSS, its mandate to provide the platform should save the country huge sums of money.
The CEO of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse made the remarks when he addressed some journalists to mark the company’s 10 years of operations.
“It is important that we do have an infrastructure that we are currently using for the banks so it is very likely that we will not buy new systems if at all maybe upgrade so we will be riding on the back of the current infrastructure,” he opined.
Mr. Hesse added, “Under the circumstances, if you have an infrastructure that you might need to perform a function, it’s most likely to be cheaper than starting from the scratch.”
GhIPSS was tasked with the mandate after a botched agreement with Sibton Switch systems early this year.
The company, which had won a bid after competing with two others, quoted 4.6 billion cedis as the cost of operating an interoperable system for the telcom operators.
The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia at the first National Policy Summit also asserted that the interoperable system should be functional by November 2017.
In his view, this formed part of the government’s efforts at increasing financial literacy and attain a cashless economy in the short to medium term.
GhIPSS is however yet to complete the business requirement after which it will launch into the six month timeline for interoperability.
Though he wouldn’t readily disclose how much it will cost the outfit to develop the system, Mr. Archie Hesse tells Citi Business News his outfit will work in the best interest of the country.
“What we are doing is to look at what the business requirements are and then try to ascertain what systems will be needed to perform that task; if it is that it is to cost 1 cedi or 12 billion cedis, then that will just be the case. We will only have one company; GhIPSS that will perform the function.”