Local ATM card holders to enjoy new services via hybrid

Local ATM card holders can now perform a lot more transactions on the gh-link hybrid Point of Sales (POS), following the addition of new features to the POSes.

The users of the local ATM card can now buy mobile phone airtime as well as pay for DSTV and GoTV subscriptions.

Fossil Pay, a subsidiary of Bayfield FMCG Holdings, an award winning Distribution Company, are managing and installing these additional features on the POSes.

The hybrid POSes have the capacity to take on additional services, and various IT service providers are working closely with Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) to add value to these terminals.

The additional features are currently limited to some few POSes but it is expected that more outlets will have these POSes with the added services.

The Chief Executive Officer, Mr. George Yaw Amoah, of Bayfield FMCG Holdinsg said the company would continue to work with GhIPSS to create more value on the POSes.

The move to add new features was to enable the public to enjoy the convenience of carrying out more transactions with their local ATM cards.

The hybrid POS is one of the latest initiative by GhIPSS that enables the public to shop and pay directly using their ATM cards.

Currently only local ATM cards can be used on these gh-link hybrid POSes.

The GhIPSS, together with banks, have deployed 436 of the POSes at 330 different locations, including shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, beauty parlours and pharmacies among others.

It has also begun rolling out these POSes in other major towns and cities besides Accra.

The hybrid POSes is one of the key projects of GhIPSS, as it seeks to migrate Ghana into an electronic payment economy, away from the heavy dependent on cash.

The Head of Business Development, Mary Dei Sarpong, said the additional features to the POSes will benefit both the consumer and the shop owner.

She explained that while it creates convenience for shoppers, who can now use their ATM card to buy airtime and pay for TV subscriptions, the shop owners also have the benefit of using the POSes for different transactions.

She said GhIPSS would continue to work with its partners, to add other relevant applications to the POSes, so that they can serve several purposes.

Most of the hybrid POSes are within the Accra-Tema area, but deployment is going on in Kumasi, Sunyani, Tamale, Takoradi and Dzodze, among other towns and cities.