The Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) have agreed to extend the waiver of fees on digital banking platforms to June 20, 2020.

The waiver, which took effect on March 23, 2020, was part of efforts to encourage the use of digital payment options to limit the possible spread of the novel Coronavirus through the use of cash.

However, the Ghana Association of Bankers disagreed with plans by GhIPPs to resume the charges on the GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP), Mobile Money Interoperativity (MMI) and ACH Direct Credit.

This was after GhIPSS in an earlier announcement to banks and other partner agencies, stated that it will from May 23, 2020, resume the charging of fees on mobile money interoperability, GhIPSS instant pay, Banks & Fintechs offering Instant Pay services to their respective customers, and banks leveraging the ACH Direct Credit platform for bulk payments such as salaries.

A statement issued on Thursday, 22 May 2020, by the two institutions said, “The Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) have agreed to extend the waiver of fees on digital banking platforms to June 20, 2020. We therefore encourage all our customers to continue using our alternate digital banking platforms and visit physical branches of Banks only when it is absolutely important and necessary to do so”.

The two Institutions reiterated and advised their customers to fully comply with the protocols issued by the World Health Organisation, the Ghana Health Service and by the President of Republic of Ghana to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Background

In the wake of the novel Coronavirus pandemic, the Bank of Ghana announced some measures to curb the spread of the virus.

This included the waiving of fees on some digital payment options including some amount of mobile money transactions, to reduce cash transactions and boost digital payments over three months.

One of the key measures was that all mobile money users can send up to GH¢100 for free (excluding cash out transactions on the same network or to different networks).

This later led to GhIPSS announcing a waiver of transaction fees across three platforms namely: GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP), Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI), and ACH Direct Credit.

Source: Citinewsroom.com