Ghana Oil Company Limited, (GOIL) has partnered the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements System (GhIPSS), to provide an electronic payment option aimed at ensuring efficiency and security in financial transactions at fuel stations.
The partnership will enable customers to purchase fuel and other products at GOIL service stations with the use of the GH-link cards provided by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements System (GhIPSS).
Introducing the product, the Head of IT and Planning at GOIL, Anthony Twumasi, said the company’s decision to synchronize its existing payment platform with GHIPSS’ national payment system, will make its services easily accessible to all its banking sector customers irrespective of their banks.
He said the GH-link offers an additional simple and convenient payment option for customers just as the company’s own GOCARD, and the use of the card also offers an opportunity for good record keeping as all transactions can be accessed in the system’s digital database.
Customers will be able to use the cards to purchase fuel and other items at all GOIL service stations across the country.
He said GOIL is committed to supporting government’s digitization agenda to modernize payment systems and thus will optimize its systems to be compatible with other digital payment options such as the universal Quick Response (QR) code which Ghana is the first country in Africa to harmonize.
The COO of GOIL, Alex Adzew, called on financial institutions to patronize the GH-link platform to make inter-bank transactions seamless and more efficient.
He said the company plans to eliminate the use of cheques by exploring digital payments to make transfers to accounts of its suppliers through GHIPPS’ payment platform.
The Head of Payment Systems at Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Kwabla Amediku Settor, said developing domestic card schemes like the gh-link cards for banks and customers has several advantages, including economic efficiency and competitiveness in business transactions.
He indicated that the Bank of Ghana, in a bid to broaden the acceptance of electronic payments, has pursued various policy initiatives, created supportive payment system infrastructure, and provided regulatory frameworks to support innovative financial products and services in the country.
Dr. Settor said the gh-link card therefore offers greater efficiency, convenience, and accessibility for financial transactions, especially during the period of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The CEO of (GhIPSS), the BoG subsidiary mandated to facilitate inter-bank transactions, Archie Hesse, said the GH-link card scheme was developed under the direction of the Central Bank of Ghana to provide Ghanaians with a secure home-grown card which rides on a system that connects all financial institutions in the country; thereby giving customers access to Automated Teller Machines & POS terminals of all member institutions.
Mr. Hesse said the Scheme published the National EMV Standards and Specifications for the issuance and acceptance of EMV cards in Ghana in 2016, making the gh-link card safe for all ATM, POS as well as online transactions and also compliant with international standards for cards.
He said, GOIL’s decision to upgrade its Point of Sales (POS) devices in all its over 400 service stations across the country to accept gh-link cards is proof of GOIL’s leadership in the industry which other oil marketing companies must emulate.
CBN
