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Payment Distribution System is the way to go-GhIPSS

Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) is inviting firms to avail themselves to technology enabled systems that would cut waste and enhance efficiency in payments. Spending long hours sorting cheques received or cheques to be paid out to a large number of people takes away crucial man hours that could be used profitably planning the next big project or deal. It is also tiresome and out of fashion for accounts officers to write thousands of cheques and dispatch them to recipients.

In an era of technology it is possible to pay over 5000 people in different locations within hours. This can be done by moving electronic funds from one account to another or even from one account to thousands with recipients being able to access the money that very day. This technology is available in Ghana and GhIPSS is encouraging organisations to ride on the back of such initiatives to make their operations less stressful and achieve effective use of time.

Briefing the media, the General Manager in charge of Project and Business Development at GhIPSS said it was unacceptable for companies to continue to spend quality hours just sorting out volumes of cheques and in some case distribute the cheques to people scattered around the country. This cumbersome routine is largely associated with companies with agents dotted around the country. He said the time spent in preparing and sending those cheques could be put to other uses while the money is sent to the recipients electronically. Hesse said it was reasonable if a company dealt with just a few cheques but in instances when the companies prepare cheques to cover hundreds of people, sticking to the old way of doing things would not constitute a proper management of the time and human resource.

Hesse said it would be unfortunate if some firms are able to send as much they want to several thousands of people within a very short time while others continue to use a whole week just to pay a few hundreds of people. “Technology has come to stay and it is cheap no matter they way you look at it, so if you fail to apply it then your profits would continue to be wiped away by old and inefficient methods of operation”. He urged the financial heads of various firms and organisations to shop around for good technology to enhance their efficiency in payments. He mentioned the Payment Distribution System operated by GhIPSS that allowed thousands of people located in both urban and remote areas to receive electronic money the moment it is paid without the need to even step out of the office let alone write cheques and dispatch them for days and weeks before they get to the intended recipients.

According to Hesse this system is suitable in both urban and rural communities, as recipients of the money sent electronically would receive them on their biometric card and can access it at any rural bank, or any e-zwich point of sales device. He explained that there are instances where staff or agents of an organisation are not stationary and might move to an area where their bank does not have a branch creating a lot of inconvenience. However with the Payment Distribution System, the electronic money can be sent to the person wherever he or she is and the recipient can access the money from any commercial bank, rural banks, Savings and Loans Company and even shops that have the e-zwich POSes as well as e-zwich ATMs.

The General Manager says GhIPSS would gladly walk any interested firm through the system and also point them to others who have been using it to independently verify its efficiency. He said they would continue to publicize the good news about the use of technology so that many more organisations would come on board and experience the beauty of electronic payment systems and its benefit to efficiency and profitability of corporate bodies, small medium or big.

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