The Chief Executive of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) Mr. Archie Hesse has encouraged the public to use electronic payment channels to send and receive money. He said this has become crucial following what appears to be frequent reports of robbery attacks.
The past one week has recorded a number of daylight robbery attacks in which unspecified amounts of money were reportedly stolen from the victims. The victims are suspected to have been traced from banks and attacked midway.
Speaking in an interview Mr. Hesse explained that such robbery attacks could be easily avoided if people sent or received monies electronically. Mr. Hesse stated that several electronic payment services exist and regardless of the amount of money that people need to send or receive, there are various options that they can explore to make such payments without carry physical cash. “A major reason for introducing these electronic payment platforms is to avoid moving about with cash, so there is absolute no excuse now to carry cash when you can send or receive that amount electronically”.
GhIPSS, through financial institutions, FinTechs and telcos has a plethora of services to make and receive payments. There are services to ensure the transfers of funds across bank accounts within minutes such as the ACH Near Real Time transfers, while there are options to transfer funds instantly such as the GhIPSS Instant Pay. It is also possible to transfer funds from bank account to mobile money wallets and vice versa, while payments can be made directly from bank accounts or mobile money wallets using cards, or GhQR. Mr. Hesse urged the public to use any of these services which he explained are very efficient, convenient and safe. “If you can walk to the banking hall to withdraw huge sums of money, then it means you have a bank account from which you can transfer that amount, so why expose yourself to avoidable risks?”
Mr. Hesse encouraged banks to educate their customer about the avoidable risk of carry huge sums of money when those amounts can be transferred to single or multiple recipients. Mr. Hesse warned that robbery cases may increase from now to the festive season and urged the public to use the various electronic channels.
The GhIPSS Boss said public education will be intensified to sensitize the public to embrace electronic payment as a way of life, adding that cash was no longer king as the electronic payment is the best option. He said as the security agencies make the efforts to rid the streets of criminals, the public can complement the efforts by completely staying away from moving about with huge sums of money unless they have police protection to do so.
