Dr. Kobby Mensah exposed on universal QR code, Bawumia vindicated

A lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kobby Mensah, has been left red-faced after his claim that Vice President Bawumia’s assertion on Ghana’s universal QR Code being the first by any African country is false.

In an extensive article by brand and financial communications expert, Nana Yaw Kesse of GCB Bank, which was sighted on GhanaWeb, Dr. Kobby Mensah’s claim against the Vice President was exposed as uninformed.

Following the launch of the universal QR Code recently, the lecturer, who is also said to be a political marketing consultant, wrote: “your excellency Mr. Vice President with all due respect QR Code payment has been in existence since 2016 in Nigeria and Kenya. Must I politely disagree that Ghana is not the first, please?”.

But in his article to GhanaWeb, Nana Yaw Kesse exposed Dr. Kobby Mensah’s lack of understanding of the difference between a QR code and a universal QR, insisting that Dr. Bawumia was “100% right.”

Nana Yaw Kesse wrote: “Following the recent lecture by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in which he stated that Ghana’s recently introduced Universal QR code was the first of its kind in Africa, Dr Kobby Mensah of the University of Ghana Business School responded by claiming that the Universal QR CODE was already existent in Ghana and that other countries such as Kenya and Nigeria already had Universal QR codes and therefore Ghana is not the first.

It was easy to understand Dr Mensah’s confusion due to the similarities in nomenclature between a QR CODE payment system and a Universal QR CODE payment system.”

“In simple terms, the difference between a QR CODE payment system and a UNIVERSAL QR CODE payment system has to do with the introduction of universal standards of interoperability for universal QR Code payment system. For example, Mobile Money existed before 2018 but the telcos operated in silos and there was no interoperability between them.

There was also no interoperability between mobile wallets and bank accounts. However, in 2018, mobile money interoperability was introduced, and the version introduced allowed Ghana to become the first country in Africa to introduce mobile money interoperability between bank accounts and mobile wallets in 2018.”

“In the same vein, Ghana’s financial services sector under the auspices of the Bank of Ghana launched Ghana’s Universal QR code solution; GhQR in March this year (2020). This was to ensure mass participation and provide avenues for cost-effective acceptance of digital payments at merchant locations.”

“The GhQR solution puts Ghana in the same category as countries like Singapore, and India, among others who have taken lead in implementing Universal Standards for National QR Code Payments.”

Having exposed Dr. Kobby Mensah’s “confusion”, the senior GCB Bank official then stated that the Vice President was right.

“Such national initiatives do not exist in any country in Africa other than Ghana. In a few countries such as Nigeria and Kenya and even here in Ghana, QR code schemes based on Visa and MasterCard collaborations do exist as well as bank and Fintech based standalone QR code schemes which serve merchants and customers of those institutions only.”

This is the source of Dr Mensah’s confusion; he equated QR CODE payment systems to Universal QR CODE payment systems.”

“GhQR is first in Africa because it is Universal, which means it is a national standard that allows the participation of all financial service providers including banks, mobile money operators Fintechs and Card schemes.

“With a single QR code, a merchant can receive payments from customers belonging to all these financial service providers; this is unique to Ghana and first in Africa.:

“That is what Ghana has done. Therefore, it is undisputed that Ghana is the first country in Africa to launch a universal QR payment service and as such Dr Bawumia is 100% right on this. I hope this clarifies Dr Kobby Mensah’s confusion.”