He said the ability of a customer to transfer money from one network to another or inter-operability was an important issue that all stakeholders must pay attention to and find ways of making it work.   Dr Bawumia was addressing the Fifth Edition of the Ghana Economic Outlook and Business Strategy Summit, organised by the African Business Media, in Accra, on the theme: “Unlocking Ghana’s Economic Potential with Mobile Money and Payment Systems”.

He stated:“I will like to encourage banks and mobile money operators to collaborate to increase the rate of making your services available to many Ghanaians owing mobile phones to offer them limitless opportunities to financial products”.It should be possible for mobile phone subscribers to contribute to Treasury bills, pay insurance premiums and pay bills at the comfort of their homes using their mobile phones, which would eventually formalise the economy, he said.

The Summit brought together captains of industry, financial and investments experts to discuss how best Ghana could explore the mobile money transfer sector to unlock its economic potentials.

The Vice President said the financial inclusion environment comprising the banks, the telecommunication companies and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GIPSS) was conducive for the implementation of the inter-operability.

The role of financial inclusion, he said, was to promote savings, increase investment and help reduce the interest rate. Dr. Bawumia, therefore, expressed the hope that the players in the financial industry would work towards achieving inter-operability this year because countries the majority of the population being involved in financial inclusiveness would help to fast-track economic growth.

“I will like to encourage banks and mobile money operators to collaborate to increase the rate of making your services available to many Ghanaians owing mobile phones to offer them limitless opportunities to financial products”. He said it should be possible for mobile phone subscribers to contribute to Treasury bills, pay insurance premiums and pay bills at the comfort of their homes using their mobile phones which would eventually formalise the economy.

“Government is determined to implement the National Identification System this year that will create a national database, the Digital Addressing System that will provide a unique identification to properties and the Financial Inclusiveness of the majority of the population that will enable Ghana to even leapfrog some advanced countries in the world,” he said.

The Vice President noted that with the aforementioned systems in place, it would serve as the engine that would drive the economic transformation of Ghana and unlock the potentials of the people for greater economic prosperity.

The Vice President said the Government was determined to build a business-friendly economy and, therefore, keen in developing the financial sector to deepen financial inclusion.  In view of this, he said, the Government abolished the VAT on financial services to encourage financial transactions through mobile money transfers.

Dr Bawumia said countries with strong financial transactions often experienced rapid economic growth, created employment and reduced poverty to the barest minimum.   In his welcome address, Mr. Kwadwo Ohemeng Asumaning, the Board Chairman of the African Business Media, said the forum had created a powerful platform for pragmatic search of feasible solution to the economic challenges and would also propel the growth of the private sector.

In this year’s meeting, he said, it would introduce post-event monitoring and evaluation of all commitments, agreements and implementable outcomes with the aim of issuing periodic report to stakeholders on its findings. “We are very much mindful of the fact that, part of the motivating reasons for our gathering here is to be better equipped in our field of endeavour; to enhance and embrace our positioning in the technological advancement to achieve success”.

He, therefore, tasked stakeholders to prioritise the modern financial transaction system in the national economic and business growth agenda in order to catch up with other countries that had advanced in that sector.

Dr. Johnson Asiama, the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said since the establishment of the Bank, it had implemented policies that had expanded access to financial services and scaled up financial inclusion.

He mentioned establishment of commercial banks, rural banks, community banks, savings and loan companies and the recent proliferation of microfinance companies. However, he said, there were large segment of the population that remained financially excluded, hence the Central Bank published the Branchless Banking Guidelines in (2008) to provide the framework for branchless expansion of financial services using mobile phones as the delivery channel.

In addition, he said, the review of the guidelines resulted in the introduction of the Guidelines for Electronic Money Issuers and Agents Guidelines in July 2015. He said the new guidelines had eliminated restrictions on non-bank entities such as telecos to issue electronic money.    However, the telecos were required to establish a separate entity licensed to issue electronic money.

He said the regulatory and supervisory reforms in digital payment was aimed at eliminating payroll fraud and lowering cost of service delivery.  It also aims at improving financial inclusion, reduction in money in circulation, efficiency, safety, competition, transparency and consumer protection.       The National Communication Authority has indicated that the Mobile Money Services was introduced in 2009 in view of the increase in mobile phone subscription, which had grown over the years from 15. 1 million to 33.3 million as at December 2016.