The Chief Executive Officer of First National Bank Ghana, Dominic Adu, has hailed the implementation of Ghana.Gov – an easy to manage digital payment platform for the government, as an outstanding intervention for the Ghanaian economic system.
Mr. Adu remarked that providing one platform to streamline transactions – ranging from simple to complex – is no easy task.
“When it comes to digitising such payments and moving away from the paper cheque, it may seem hard because it involves some level of complexity and tech heavy-lifting,” Mr. Adu says.
“But it gets much easier when the platform delivers clear digital workflow processes around those complexities, making sure both people in that scenario are engaged; that they’ve both authorised the payment – and that the money will go where it’s supposed to go. I believe this is a hallmark of the Ghana.gov platform, and we all need to embrace the good of it.”
The Ghana.Gov platform, as explained by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, is a one-stop platform to enable citizens easily access government services, simplify payments for public services, ensure prompt payments for the services and promote transparency and visibility of internally generated funds. This single payment access and revenue collection platform is estimated to boost revenue collection to GH¢3billion annually; significantly saving the hassle of long queues and a commute to pay for government services, and this helps Ghana to derive the benefit of expense-saving at GH¢250million every year.
First National Bank has just been onboarded to the Ghana.Gov platform as a recipient of payments on behalf of government.
“Having plugged into the platform, we are now able to offer our customers and the general public a wide range of options in terms of payments for goods and services from government ministries and agencies,” he says.
“All our branches are now receiving payment for administrative fees, levies, rates, taxes and other revenues to the various ministries, departments, agencies and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembles (MMDAs) listed on the platform.”