March 24

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DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL MARCH 24, 2020
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
GhIPSS waives interbank, cross
wallet transfer charges
THE GHANA Interbank
Payment
and Settlement
Systems
(GhIPSS), a
wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Bank of
Ghana, has announced a waiver
of fees on electronic services.
In a press statement issued in
Accra, on Sunday, it said all commercial
banks, Fintechs and Mobile
Money (MoMo) operators
leveraging the various platforms
to offer electronic payment services
were not going to incur any
service charges.
This effect from yesterday,
Monday, March 23, and the
waiver is regardless of the volume
and value of transaction.
Mobile Money Interoperability
(MMI) and all cross-wallet
transactions on the platform, it
said, would not attract any fees,
likewise the GhIPSS Instant Pay
(GIP), banks and Fintechs offering
instant pay services.
This, it added, applied to
banks leveraging the ACH-Direct
Credit platform for bulk
payments such as
salaries on behalf
of corporate institutions.
The GhIPSS
expressed confidence
that the fee
waiver would contribute
to efforts
in promoting and
encouraging the
use of digital payment
options to
limit the possible
spread of the flu-like COVID-19
through contacts with cash in
physical form.
It therefore urged the partner
banks, Fintechs and MoMo service
providers to make the services
available to customers on
their various digital and mobile
payment platforms - the mobile
app, Internet banking and USSD.
The GhIPSS also appealed to
the public to turn to these and
other electronic payment options
and avoid the use of physical cash
as much as practicable. It said the
Ghana Quick Response (GhQR)
and Proxy Pay services, which
would be launched on March 25,
would also provide additional
channels for the public to transact
business electronically.
GhIPSS reminded the people
to observe personal hygiene and
social distancing in order to curb
the spread of the COVID-19.
&Env.
15M Ghanaians could
contract coronavirus
– Research Scientist
ASENIOR Research
Scientist and Lecturer
at the Department
of
Medical Diagnostics
at the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology (KNUST), Dr
Michael Owusu, says 50 to 60% of
Ghanaians are likely to be exposed
to the deadly coronavirus if safety
etiquettes are not properly observed
with increasing cases of
community transmission.
According to the clinical microbiologist,
out of the country’s
30 million population, about 14 to
15 million people could contract
the coronavirus.
The Kumasi Centre for Collaborative
Research(KCCR) scientist
is predicting that the aged population
in Ghana, which is about 1.4
million, representing five percent
(5%) of the total population of
the country according to the 2010
population census, are likely to die
if they decided not to adhere to
the safety measure government
and scientists have put in place.
He added, “We should also
think into the fact that we can
overwhelm the health care sector
such that those who have malaria,
those who will get accident and
other people
with underline
conditions
may
not get a
place to be
attended to
in the hospitals
and we
are likely to
lose all these
people.”
“So the
precautions
of staying indoor
and social
distancing
and limiting
movements
are very crucial at this moment,”
he stressed.
Dr Owusu said though lockdown
was part of measures government
must consider, it was not
fully prepared for that because a
lot of factors needed to be put in
place before.
“A lot has to go for a lockdown;
from what I’m seeing I
don’t think we are prepared. A
lockdown involves a lot of thinking
and structural planning to enable
us to do this.
“A lot of people in Ghana are
in the informal structure. There
are some who, if they don’t go to
market to sell, they will not get
anything. So the MMDCEs, and
DCEs must begin to have a plan.
“Yeah, we can limit movement; we
must make people sit indoors if
we have to give people incentive
to stay indoors we must begin to
do that,’’ he suggested.
He stressed that ration of market
days should also be considered
to reduce congestion as part of
measure to control the spread of
the virus in communities.