Friday, February 29, 2008

e-zwich smart card test run for March(Page 34) February 28, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
GHANA Interbank Payment Settlement System (GHIPSS) will next month start a test run on the newly introduced e-zwich smart card for banks in the country.
Consequently, Merchant Bank, in association with GHIPSS, has begun an educational programme on the acquisition and usage of the card for its customers in Accra.
The e-zwich smart card, like any other smart card, is embedded with a chip to store particulars of a user and his fingerprints for financial transactions.
The user electronically loads all his cash flow on it and uses it at points where the card is accepted.
The Head of Projects and Business Development of GHIPSS, Mr Archie Hessey, disclosed this in an interview after a seminar organised by the Merchant Bank Ghana Limited for its customers on the e-zwich smart card in Accra on Tuesday.
The seminar was to provide customers of the bank with general knowledge on how the smart card is used.
The Co-ordinator of the Merchant Bank e-zwich smart card, Mr Slyvester Apedoe, said when operational, the smart card would provide a platform that would allow both account and non-account holders to transact business with the bank.
He said the e-zwich smart card allowed for all financial institutions to transact business among them without carrying hard cash from one point to the other.
He said it would also provide secure identification of customers for transaction processing, reduce fraud and secure cash movement and payment.
He said GHIPSS was putting in place the necessary infrastructure to connect all banks in the country to it.
Mr Apedoe explained that one would have to contact the banks to be issued with an e-zwich smart card.
He said it did not matter whether one operated an account with the bank or not to be issued with the smart card.
He said the bank would also have point of sale terminals with their customers running shops and other businesses.

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