NSS receives 230 e-zwich equipment
The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Limited has presented 230 e-zwich point of sale (PoS) terminals to the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to be distributed to its various district offices.
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The 230 terminals are valued at GH¢502,900. Each equipment comes with a data subscriber identification module (SIM) card and loading papers.
The PoS device will enable service personnel to load their funds onto their e-zwich cards after they have been paid their monthly allowances.
The donation was made last Friday to the secretariat at a meeting with the various district directors and the management of the NSS in Accra.
To make it easier and convenient to use at the various offices, several demonstrations were carried out by officers from the GhIPSS.
Decision to use e-zwich
The decision to use e-zwich as the mode of payment for national service personnel was taken in November last year as part of efforts to eliminate the incidence of payroll fraud, while ensuring that the personnel received their allowances instantly by the press of a button.
This is part of control measures implemented by the new management of the NSS under its new acting Executive Director, Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, which has prevented about 75,000 ghost names from entering the service payroll in the 2014/2015 service year.
Already, GhIPSS has deployed adequate channels to enable national service personnel to access their allowances via e-zwich at a lower cost.
Additionally, its services do not also attract the 17.5 per cent VAT on fee-based financial services.
Currently, there are about 33 e-zwich-only automated teller machines (ATMs) available and about 16 hybrid ATMs that can take both e-zwich and local cards mainly with Ecobank, while other measures are being put in place to ensure that GCB Bank, GT Bank and Cal Bank come on board.
E-zwich operation
Explaining how the e-zwich system works, the Head of Technological Services Operations at GhIPSS, Mr Kojo Ntim, said service personnel needed to register for the e-zwich card at any bank of their choice before they could use the system.
He added that personnel would be required to download their funds from either the district offices or any bank, “after which they can withdraw their money from any bank in the country”.
“The e-zwich card is faster and convenient partly because the system operates in an offline mood; therefore the card holder does not need any external device apart from the PoS terminal to process his or her transaction,” he stated.
Personnel who might not want to use the PoS device at the district offices could do that at any bank of their choice, but at a cost, Mr Ntim noted.
Receiving the equipment on behalf of the NSS, Dr Kpessa-Whyte expressed appreciation for the gesture, and pledged to ensure that they were put to good use.
“Any district director who does not ensure proper care of the devices and leads to eventual breakdown, the cost will be deducted from his or her salary,” he cautioned.
The acting Executive Director also called on the regional and district managers to do their best to ensure that the scheme regained public confidence.
“Gradually, graduates are losing interest in the scheme due to the lingering challenges the service is facing currently. But all is not lost if we all do our best to ensure that it regains public confidence,” he said.