Innovative Electronic Payment System (Innovative EPS), the company that operates the Payzone one-stop self-service electronic payment machines, says it is set to launch its mobile financial services; a platform that will significantly enhance the operations of the banking industry in the country.
The Executive Chairman and founder of PAYZONE, Mr George Boateng, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the mobile financial services system had been designed to target the unbanked population in the country.
Financial inclusion data
A survey conducted in 2010 (FinScope 2010) indicates that only 56 per cent of adult Ghanaians, or 7.5 million individuals, are financially included.
This means that 44 per cent of adult Ghanaians (5.9 million individuals) are excluded from the financial system, thus they have no dealings with any formal or informal financial services provider.
The report also indicated that out of the 41 per cent adult Ghanaians who were included in the formal financial system (5.5 million individuals), 34 per cent (4.5 million individuals) were in the banking system.
This low financial services coverage and savings culture come in spite of growth in the country’s per capita income from $1,100 to the current $1,840 within the last few years.
Reversing the trend will require banks to innovate and introduce products and services which target the unbanked, usually found in the informal sector, and the mobile financial service on the PAYZONE platform is expected to help banks to deepen financial inclusion in the country.
PAYZONE features
The PAYZONE machines are like automated teller machines (ATMs), which are placed at vantage locations to provide easy access for the public to purchase airtime of any of the mobile telecom operators.
It is anticipated that the public will eventually be able to use Payzone to conveniently pay utilities and other services such as DSTV bills.
One of the significant value propositions of the machine is the unique feature of courting and educating people to do away with the culture of using physical cash for all payments and instead use electronic money, which can be purchased on the machine in the very near future.
Mr Boateng said it was the company’s quest to help create a cashless society in line with the government’s programme to encourage cashless transactions.
The PAYZONE payment system is just one out of the three major products that Innovative EPS offers. The others are Innodigital (advertising) and innocloud (cloud computing).
“Our ecosystem creates an environment whereby service providers can interact directly with their consumers. This way, it helps to migrate consumers gradually from their preference to use physical cash to electronic cash. Eventually, the public can use this electronic money on their phones to pay for services at their convenience,” the executive chairman of Innovative EPS said.
About the company
Innovative EPS started about three years ago, after a market survey by a Harvard University team revealed that the service was a viable venture which the country was ready for.
Infrastructure development, including the laying of fibre optic cables, a data centre, wireless masts and systems, effecting connectivity, installation and testing of software, started in 2011.
Since then, Innovative EPS has deployed PAYZONE machines across Accra and Tema and will continue to do so to create proximity advantage for all consumers. The payment machines have friendly user interface which enables consumers to follow five simple steps to complete a transaction.
Promoters of the PAYZONE project believe the service is capable of generating between GH¢3 billion and GH¢5 billion in turnover over the next five years and over GH¢300 million in revenue across the value chain, creating about 5,000 permanent employment.
Outlook
The company requires about 5,000 machines to cover the whole country and it has set itself a short, medium and long-term goal to achieve that feat.
Mr Boateng said Innovative EPS also had plans to roll out to other African countries in the next 10 years. Ghana will remain the hub office.