The CEO of Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS), Clara Arthur has said that she intends to put the last piece of the puzzle in Ghana’s mobile money interoperability (MMI) system by ensuring that there is interoperability at the mobile money agent level as well.
This, she said, is critical to deepening financial inclusion in the country.
She made the remark during a panel session at the launch of the State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (SIIPS) Africa 2025 Report in Eswatini. Per the report, put together by AfricaNenda Foundation in partnership with the World Bank and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the value of instant payment in Africa reach US$2 trillion from 64 billion transactions in 2024.
In that report, Ghana’s MMI and GIP (GhIPSS Instant Pay) were listed among 10 instant payment systems that have reached progressed level, driving all to all payments. Â
But currently, Ghana’s widely acclaimed MMI only allows wallet to wallet transfers across networks, as well as wallet to bank and bank to wallet transfers only by individual users.
At the agent level, however, transfers are only possible if the recipient wallet is on the same network as the agent’s wallet.
But in an exclusive interview with Techfocus24, Clara Arthur noted that cross-network transfers at the agent level are already possible with the banks, and that is why a customer holding an ATM card from one bank (Ecobank), can make a cash out from the ATM machine of another bank (Fidelity Bank), then GhIPSS will sort out the settlements between the two banks because the rails for that exist.
She said that all mobile money agents should be able to operate interoperable wallets, such that they can be able to transfer e-cash into all wallets from one agent wallet, no matter which network the receiving wallet is on.
“Currently when you go to a mobile money agent to do a transaction and he/she does not have a merchant wallet on the same network as yours, the agent will not be able to serve you. But that period will soon be over, once will plug in the last piece of the puzzle in the interoperability ecosystem,” he said.
Clara Arthur explained that agents are critical to ensuring financial inclusion and so, empowering them with interoperable wallets to be able to transfer e-cash to all wallets and accounts, irrespective of the network the recipient wallet is on, is the major step towards achieving total financial inclusion.
Meanwhile, Clara Arthur also announced that GhIPSS will soon migrate its real-time payment rails from the ISO 8583 model to the ISO 20022 standards to drive expanded use cases and improved messaging within the digital finance ecosystem.
She believes that is another critical piece of the puzzle to move Ghana’s payment system from a progressed inclusivity stage to the mature level of inclusivity, an open API regime drives more innovative use cases, affordability and better dispute resolution in the ecosystem.
