Number of E-Zwich card holders up to 2.77m – BoG

The number of E-Zwich card holders increased to 2.77 million in December 2018, from the 2.36 million recorded in December 2017, the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has revealed in the Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report, 2018.

The BoG further explained that the total volume of E-Zwich transactions declined by 7.3 per cent to 7.76 million, while total value of transactions increased by 64.7 per cent to GH¢5.65 billion in 2018.

“The decline in volume of transactions was partly attributed to a drop in purchases, cash deposits, and cash withdrawals on the E-Zwich platform by 91.1, 67.4 and 19.4 per cent, respectively,” the central bank said.

Regarding the Gh-LinkTM (National Switch), the BoG said the total volume of transactions on the gh-linkTM platform was 1.83 million in 2018 compared to 2.34 million in 2017.

Also, the total value of transactions was GH¢543.74 million in 2018 compared to GH¢603.43 million in 2017. ATM transactions continued to dominate on the gh-linkTM platform and constituted more than 99.0 per cent of the transactions in 2018.

“In 2018, the total volume of GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP) transactions increased to 143,879 from 41,795 in 2017. Also, the total value of transactions increased to GH¢534.04 million from GH¢83.2 million,” the BoG said.

Meanwhile the BoG has revealed that the number of registered internet banking customers has reduced.

According to the central bank, the number fell by 12.9 per cent from 936,965 in 2017 to 815,904 in 2018.

The BoG made these observations in the Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report, 2018

“Number of registered internet banking customers declined by 12.9 per cent from 936,965 in 2017 to 815,904 in 2018. Similarly, the value of Internet Banking transactions decreased to GH¢ 6.27 billion in 2018 from GH¢ 9.74 billion in 2017”

“Over the period, however, the number of registered mobile banking customers increased to 3,891,269 in 2018 from 2,110,984 in 2017. Similarly, the value of transactions increased to GH¢ 5.66 billion in 2018 from GH¢ 1.50 billion in 2017,” the report said.