AVRL, eTransact introduce mobile bill payment system

Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL), in collaboration with eTransact, on Wednesday introduced the first ever mobile utility bill payment system in the country. The system, developed by eTransact, an electronic transaction solutions company, would enable debit card and ATM card holders to pay water bills through selected banks using the credit on their mobile phones.

The selected banks include UBA, Intercontinental Bank, Amalbank, Zenith Bank and Unibank. Mr George Babafemi, Chief Operating Officer of eTransact, told the the selected banks to pay their bills from the comfort of their homes and offices, at a transaction fee of 50 Ghana pesewas per every transaction. "Anytime one wants to make a payment through the eTransact platform, one would be given a onetime pin code, which he/she can use to generate a secret code on his/her phone before authorizing the payment," he said.

Mr. Babafemi said the eTransact platform had a monitoring mechanism to ensure nothing more than the amount commanded by the customer was deducted.

Mr. Cor Lievers, Customer Care Director at AVRL, assured customers that before the official introduction, a pilot had been run to test the functionality, security, effectiveness and robustness of the system. "We at AVRL are satisfied that it is a convenient and efficient way of payment for our valued customers," he said. He therefore urged AVRL customers to make use of the new payment system, saying that the platform also allowed AVRL customers to walk to any of the eTransact member-banks and pay their bills even if they did not have accounts with those banks.

Mr. Lievers said when a customer made a payment through the eTransact platform, the payment would automatically reflect in AVRL's bank account and with the provided data AVRL would be able to process the payment to reflect on their billing system. "When a bill is paid before the pay date indicated on the bill, the payment will reflect on the next month's bill," he said. The introduction of the new payment system is an addition to a number of innovations in the water sector by AVRL. The company recently launched a Geographic Information System (GIS) through which it captured all of its urban customers and also introduced a toll free customer care line - 080040000 - through which customers could reach AVRL for timely response to problems.