Bank of Ghana Unveils GhanaPay Mobile Wallet

The Central Bank of Ghana has launched GhanaPay, a mobile wallet for savings and loan companies and banks, including rural and community banks.

Speaking at the launch of the program on Wednesday, June 15, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison called GhanaPay a milestone in the digitalization of the country’s financial system.

“Banks in Ghana are reinventing themselves and have continued to respond positively to the competitive nature of payment systems characterized by increased consumer preference for convenience and frictionless payment options,” he said in a speech. .

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Addison said the mobile wallet will reduce the cost of testing new technologies for each bank, while enabling new ways of doing business.

“Indeed, this is an exciting development for Ghana’s payment systems landscape and demonstrates how collaboration with the banking industry can offer solutions for the transformation and deepening of the payments ecosystem,” did he declare.

Addison noted that Ghana has made “commendable” progress in shifting to electronic payments, with instant payment transactions increasing from 420,000 cedi (about $52,800) in 2016 to 31.4 billion cedi (about 3. $9 billion) last year.

Meanwhile, the country’s cash in circulation as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen from 6.8% in 2016 to 4.7% in 2021, while check usage per capita has risen from 25 .67 in 2016 to 18.9 in 2021, according to the speech.

In March, the Bank of Ghana said it wanted to ensure that the country’s digital currency would be operational on payment platforms operated by mobile service providers.

Read more: Central Bank of Ghana wants digital currency to be available on mobile apps

“It is important that eCedi is implemented to complement and improve existing payment systems,” the central bank said at the time. “The various existing electronic and mobile payment solutions must therefore be interoperable with eCedi to enable their use of eCedi.