Ghana will play host to the first conference on biometric smart card on Tuesday, when experts on payment systems from the continent meet in Accra to deliberate on the relevance of the system.
The conference, jointly organised by EDAPT and Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), is christened ‘EDAPT User Group 2016’, and will delve into the biometric payment technology and its benefits.
A release issued in Accra said EDAPT evolved from Net 1, and is a leading provider of payment solutions and transaction-processing services in a number of emerging economies.
It also said “the company has been working with GhIPSS on a number of payment system projects”.
Experts have argued that the biometric payment technology is most suitable for the African continent due to its peculiar characteristics. Ghana is a pioneer in the deployment of this technology using e-zwich which has tremendously helped deepen financial intermediation particularly in peri-urban and rural communities.
In Ghana, e-zwich has witnessed increased usage, following the government’s decision to use it to pay National Service personnel, beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), School Feeding Caterers and student loans, among others.
A number of corporate entities are also using the biometric payment system to pay their contract staff.
The latest to benefit from the e-zwich technology is the Biometric Search technology which is used in cleaning payrolls.
As Ghana and other African countries work towards a cash-lite economy, discussions at this conference are expected to shape strategies, going forward, especially with regard to biometric technology.
The Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, Mr Archie Hesse, said in an interview that the conference would serve as a platform to exchange ideas on the payment transformation agenda.