German agency, KFW, will from August 2013 provide a 700-million Euro ($920 million) facility to financial institutions in Ghana for use in rolling out branchless banking infrastructure in the country.
The credit facility will be available to various financial institutions, agents and merchants for the deployment of a hybrid Automated Teller Machines (ATM) for e-zwich (a Ghanaian mobile payment system), hybrid Point of Sales (POSs) devices, merchant e-zwich cards as well as agent e-zwich cards and related logistics.
Mary Dei Sarpong, Head of Business Development at the Ghana Inter-bank Payment System (GhIPSS), an agency that pursues mobile payment systems, said the facility from KFW was a four-year concessionary loan with a year grace period, and is to help financial institutions to pursue branchless banking infrastructure.
She said banks, savings and loans companies and rural and community banks as well as merchants and agents could access commercial loans via application forms on the GhIPSS website, through their sponsoring banks.
The facility was a revolving fund spanning a period of ten years, indicating that the financial institutions as well as agents and merchants could access the facility for a longer period, Dei Sarpong explained.
The German Government through KFW granted the Government of Ghana the facility more than two years ago to support branchless banking and to make banking available to rural communities.
She said merchants could acquire POS’s and offer basic banking services such as cash back, accepting cash deposits in exchange for electronic funds, and other services.
Officials of GhIPSS and the Consultant working on the KFW facility were currently visiting the banks to walk them through the process of accessing the loan, ahead of the 1st August when the application form would be available.
Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive of GhIPSS, said the loan will help bring banking to the doorsteps of customers and also a way of de-congesting banking halls.
Overcrowding in banking halls is a complaint raised by consumers and GhIPSS has being working to create alternative channels of banking to help solve this problem.
