Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia under the auspices of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPPS), a subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana has launched Ghana’s Universal Quick Response (QR) Code and Proxy Online Payment system in Accra.
The QR Code and Proxy Payment System which is a cashless payment system will play a major role in reducing direct contact with money be it notes or coins which scientists have found to be one common way the deadly Coronavirus can be transferred from an infected person to another.
“We need to minimize the use of cash in the face of Coronavirus because banknotes, like anything we touch, are a transmission channel” he emphasized.
Ghana thus becomes the first country in Africa, and one of only a few countries in the world in the world to launch a Universal QR Code Payment system.
I underscored that the Universal QR CODE will make it possible for all merchants, service providers and institutions to receive payments from bank accounts, Zurich accounts, mobile money wallets or internationally issued visa or MasterCards instantly.
Any merchant can have a universal QR CODE: e.g. chop bars, food vendors, barbers, carpenters or masons, musicians, shoeshine boys, kebab or ‘Kofi brokeman’ sellers, market traders, trotros, taxis, churches, mosques, schools, funeral committees, wedding organisers etc.
I urge every merchant or service provider to get a universal QR CODE from their bank, telco or a fintech as soon as possible. I also urge every adult to get a bank account or a mobile money account immediately. The QR CODE will work with both smartphones and “yam” phones.
The Universal QR CODE provides Ghana with the vehicle to move towards a cashless economy. Let us all get aboard.
