Government calls for interoperability between banks, telcos

Government has called for a collaboration among financial stakeholders and telecommunication companies in the country to facilitate easy transfer of money for mobile subscribers nationwide.

Speaking at the 2017 edition of the Ghana Economic Outlook and Business Strategy conference (EOBS) in Accra Wednesday, Vice President Dr. Bawumia indicated the role interoperability between banks and telcos would play in formalizing the economy and triggering major economic boosts in the country.

Interoperability is the capability of systems or units to provide and receive services and information between one another, and to use the services and information exchanged to operate effectively together in predictable ways without significant user intervention.

According to Dr. Bawumia, Ghana has an excellent financial inclusion architecture which functions independently of each other, one that is quite unlike any other in Africa and if properly harnessed will reach its full potential.

“Ghana is really a blessed country, when you look at the financial inclusion architecture in this country, the banks are there, the mobile companies are there, the Central Bank and the GHIPSS, we have an architecture that quite frankly I don’t see in any other country in Africa….what we are lacking is interoperability”, he said.

He therefore urged the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement systems (GHIPSS), to collaborate with other institutions including the Central Bank and major telecommunications companies in the country to collaborate and work towards making their platforms interoperable by the end of the year. He also urged the banks and mobile network operators to increase the range of services available to customers.

“I therefore want to challenge the stakeholders…….GHIPSS and the banks, and government will want to see this done this year, that we successfully have interoperability between our key players, the telco’s, the banks and the payment system architecture in this country.

Vice President Bawumia stated among other things, government’s intent to implement the digital addressing system and the national identification system by the end of the year. This, he says, will strengthen the country’s economic pillars and boost economic development.