-GhIPSS boss tells shop owners
Businesses are being encouraged to find innovative ways to get their customers to choose electronic payment channels over cash. This is to enable such businesses to have less cash on them and reduce their exposure to robbery and pilfering.
There are concerns of robberies on the highways, in shops and other places and in most instances the robbers go in for cash. While businesses may not be able to do away with cash entirely, the Chief Executive of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Archie Hesse believes that businesses can strategize and reduce the amount of cash they would have to keep in their shops.
Speaking in an interview, Mr. Hesse explained that if shops received more electronic payments than cash, then majority of their sales will rest in their bank accounts and not in the tills and be exposed to robbery and pilfering.
He said shop owners can use persuasive words, discounts and other basic promotional activities to entice their customers to use the various electronic means of payment. “Keeping a lot of cash in your shop is risky and it cost money to transport or move the cash to your bank, but if you receive electronic payment, you avoid the cost of transporting the cash and the risk, so why not give part of the savings you make as discount to customers that pay you electronically?”, he quizzed.
The GhIPSS boss explained that if customers enjoy discount for paying electronically, they will be encouraged to use the various electronic payment channels instead of cash. He said the expected increase in business activities in the last quarter of the year can also attract miscreants. He said shop owners and businesses in general should devise ways of receiving less cash, so that in the unlikely event of a robbery attack, they would not lose much money. “Make it worthwhile for your customers to prefer to pay with GhQR, their bank cards, MoMo etc., give them discount or give them some freebies when they pay electronically, because when they pay electronically, it benefits you as shop owner and reduces your exposure to crime”.
Mr. Hesse said shops can team up with their banks to run various promotions to reward customers, adding that losing lots of money to criminals is way more expensive than the reward packages that can be given to customers who pay electronically. “Such reward or promotional activities can even encourage your customers to even buy more than they normally would do”.
The GhIPSS CEO urged the security agencies to intensify their efforts at fighting crime but said the public can play its role by using more of electronic payment options.
