It was all joy in the South African city of Sandton when Ghana affirmed its supremacy in technology as one of its companies outshone a number of well-known global brands to annex the coveted Best Technology Initiative Award in Africa for 2013.
This was at the 2014 Card and ePayment Africa Awards, an annual event to recognise and reward excellence and cutting-edge innovation in the card and electronic payment market in Africa.
The awards ceremony was organised by the Card and e-Payment Africa Awards secretariat in South Africa.
The Ghanaian information technology (IT) company, Innovative EPS Ltd, which has operated the PayZone brand for only three years, beat high profile companies, including banking giants, Barclays Bank, and Access Bank Plc, with its much hailed PayZone e-payment platform.
For a company to qualify for the annual award, it must first be nominated by public voting and verified later by a highly renowned panel of judges.
Briefing journalists after the awards ceremony, the Chief Operations Officer of Innovative EPS, Mr Bernard Anyan-Mensah, said “the honour will definitely spur us on to higher heights”.
The Executive Chairman of the company, Mr George Boateng, predicted high economic boom should the government take advantage of the numerous opportunities offered by technology in various economic fields.
“Technology is the only solution to Africa’s economic woes and, therefore, I ask governments on the continent to pay greater attention to that sector,” he told a section of journalists.
“The PayZone platform alone is more than capable of becoming the single largest fund mobiliser for central governments, aside the huge potential to generate jobs for between 500,000 and one million people in Africa within the next five to 10 years,” Mr Boateng said.
He likened the platform to google, whatsapp, facebook and other ICT innovations, stressing on their ability to accelerate economic transformation within the shortest period.
Innovative EPS Ltd has been working on developing virtual business transaction payment systems, using its PayZone payment platform, all in their bid to help create a cashless society.
Even though PayZone is yet to be officially launched, many patrons have lauded the convenience and proximity advantages the platform provides for its growing customers.
The PayZone platform, which currently hosts all the telecommunication networks in Ghana, facilitates the purchase of direct airtime top-ups from its self-service payment kiosks currently deployed at various locations in the Greater Accra Region such as the 37 Military Hospital, GPHA, Accra Mall and some university campuses.