Nationwide e-zwich enrolment, 15,000 SHS students so far registered

Accra, Jan. 26, GNA - About 15,000 Senior High School (SHS) students have been enrolled onto the e-zwich platform by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) as part of efforts to get more people to use the biometric card.

The exercise, which began in November, last year, covered 25 schools in Central, Brong Ahafo and Upper West Regions.

Speaking to journalists in Accra on Wednesday, GhIPSS General Manager in-charge of Project and Business Development, Archie Hesse said a second phase of the programme was underway and would continue till April.

He said three different teams had been engaged to ensure that more students were registered and issued with the e-zwich card.

The registration teams would cover 66 schools in the Volta, Ashanti, Eastern, Central, Northern and Upper East Regions before the students embark on vacation.

Mr Hesse said GhIPSS target was to enrol at least 50,000 students and staff of SHS before the year ends.

He said GhIPSS had been motivated to continue with the exercise following the high patronage of e-zwich cards and Automated Teller Machines on the campuses of tertiary institutions.

He expressed the hope that the beneficiary students would acquire the habit of using the e-zwich cards as a form of payment and other financial transactions.

Mr Hesse said two Point of Sales devices had been placed at each SHS where the enrolment had taken place.

One of them would be used for the payment of school fees and the other for transactions such as receiving of remittances.

He said some parents had begun remitting their wards through the e-zwich system and urged those who continued to remit through friends or travel to schools to do so to avail themselves of the service.

Mr Hesse noted that each e-zwich card had a savings wallet that attracts higher interest, explaining that parents could use it to inculcate the habit of saving in their wards at an early age.

The e-zwich biometric card was introduced less than three years ago to reduce the use of cash and increase money in the banking system.