The German government is providing EUR8 million (US$10.6 million) to boost Ghana’s ambitious e-zwich programme, which creates a common platform for all banking and financial institutions.
The Ghana Interbank Payment Settlement System (GhIPSS) manages e-zwich and is wholly owned by the Bank of Ghana.
It was first introduced in 2007 and was the first of its kind in the world, although its future has been threatened by poor user numbers.
Archie Hesse, chief executive officer (CEO) of GhIPSS, told Ghana Business News: “The German government has given us €8 million soft loan at a rate of 6 per cent for the commercial banks to use to buy the necessary infrastructure required to make e-zwich work for the country.”
Hesse disagreed with suggestions e-zwich was dying and said user numbers had increased.
He added the World Food Programme (WFP) was the latest organisation to express an interest in using the e-zwich platform.
