GhIPSS secures €8m German ‘soft loan’ for e-zwich infrastructure

The German government has provided a soft loan of €8 million for Ghana’s e-zwich technology.

The loan was provided when the German government on two occasions understudied the use of the payment platform managed by the Ghana Interbank Payment Settlement System (GhIPSS) which is a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana.

According to Mr Archie Hesse, CEO of GhIPSS, who announced this at the ongoing National Payments Strategy workshop in Accra, the loan will be used for e-zwich referrals such as the e-zwich ATMs, cards and point of sale machines which were not part of the central bank’s domain since it provided the central infrastructure.

“The German government has given us €8 million soft loan at a rate of 6% for the commercial banks to use to buy the necessary infrastructure required to make e-zwich work for the country,” Mr Hesse told ghanabusinessnews.com June 20, 2013 in an interview.

Despite the pitfalls, Mr Hesse said e-zwich is not dead because its figures are showing that individuals are actually using it.

He said organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) has indicated its interest in using the e-zwich platform to pay farmers when it [WFP] buys food stuff from them.

By Ekow Quandzie