Using cheques in Ghana will soon be archaic, Vice President discloses

This according to him is due to the rapid evolution in Ghana's payments system in the context of the digitisation agenda.

He made the revelation while speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2019 diaspora summit on Accra on Saturday, June 6, 2019.

Dr Bawumia emphasised that with the introduction of mobile money interoperability, the use of cheques is in decline.

Currently, mobile money payments account for 70% of payments and cheques are continuously losing ground to electronic payments.

The Vice President further noted that the situation for cheques is only going to worsen with the imminent introduction of a Universal QR CODE for payments platform in Ghana which will result in instant payment and crediting of accounts, cheques will slowly become obsolete in Ghana as is the case in countries like Namibia.

"If your account can instantly be credited why would you bother with Cheques?" the Vice President questioned.

The Universal QR CODE will mean that merchants in Ghana no longer need a Point of Sale device to receive payments. They will only need a mobile phone. Merchants as small as street food vendors will be covered by the Universal QR CODE. Their bank or mobile money accounts will be instantly credited.

Countries that have recently introduced the Universal QR CODE system include Singapore, India and China.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) says it will soon announce a new capital requirement for all institutions that operate the mobile money services.

The Head of Payment Systems at the Bank of Ghana, Dr Setor Amediku who disclosed the information said, “A minimum capital requirement which the BoG will soon come out that if you want do mobile money business you will need to come up with some money, which will be deposited in BoG as a way of guarantee to ensure that you are fit and proper to do the business.”