About 405 active farmer based organizations in the Ashanti region are set to be enrolled unto an electronic cashless pay system that would enable them access farm inputs rapidly at a lower cost.
The system, known as Zeepay and in a pilot stage will operate as a mobile money merchant app, which will allow the acquisition of mobile money transactions at point of sales.
In all, over 20,000 farmers in the region are set to benefit from a 1.8million dollar grain center endorsed by the United Nation’s as a global food supply point.
“This system is new in that it would allow the farmer to acquire farm inputs such as fertilizer even when the farmer has no money”, the Ashanti Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr. Kwaku Minka Fordjour intimated.
He explained that the farmers would be allowed to acquire farm inputs through the system on their mobile phones, after which they would be made to pay after they have sold their farm produce.
“Whether the farmer has money or not the system would take care of it by bringing together all the stakeholders in the value chain system”, he said adding, that there would be a pool of resources that would be available through service providers.
On his part, a Co-Founder of Zeepay, Mr. Andrew Takyi-Appiah stated that the platform will operate as a mobile agnostic and leverages NFC technology.
“The app can be downloaded onto most point of sale devices and smart phones with android version 4.0 and above”, he said.
Mr. Takyi-Appiah pointed out that, the system also operates a remittances hub via point of sale and termination on mobile money wallet.
“Our platform supports onetime cash vouchers in remittances, cash to wallet, wallet to wallet, cash to bank account and wallet to cash”, he said adding that the processor enables for over two-hundred thousand transactions per second.
He stated that the system further supports domestic transfers nationwide and connects to both banks and retailers to provide this service.
“The platform enables straight to bank transactions, hence making it possible for Cash-In and Cash-Out Services into Bank Accounts, Wallets and Non registered clients”, he said.
