ADVERTISEMENT

MasterCard shares electronic payments best practice in Ghana

Global leader in payments technology hosts corporates and small businesses at a Commercial and Prepaid Card Workshop to advance Ghana’s cashless drive

___3952009___https:______static.pulse.com.gh___webservice___escenic___binary___3952009___2015___7___8___15___unnamed

Corporate companies and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) committed to adopt electronic payment solutions at a MasterCard Commercial and Prepaid Solutions workshop held recently in Accra.

The workshop highlighted diverse electronic payment products and services available to organizations in virtually every sector, enabling them to streamline and bring greater efficiencies to their operations.

Some of these payment solutions include: purchasing cards for business expenditures; prepaid cards for payroll, healthcare, insurance as well as business travel, incentives and gifts; and corporate cards for travel and entertainment expenses. Corporate cards also play a key part of the Government’s revenue management drive with tax paying companies.

“As a technology company in the global payments industry, we are working with corporate and financial institutions, governments, telecoms companies, mobile network operators and other stakeholders to share best practices that will see a deeper penetration of electronic payment products, which include physical cards and digital wallets in Ghana and across Africa,” says Driss Belemlih, Vice President, Prepaid, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard.

ADVERTISEMENT

Special attention was placed on solutions for MSMEs including prepaid cards, SME Online, a value-added service that extends the benefits of online card acceptance to small businesses, and Mobile Point of Sale (MPOS) devices, which enable business owners to process debit, prepaid and credit card transactions by using a smartphone connected to a secure card reader.

“MSMEs are essential to the growth of Ghana’s economy and electronic payment solutions can help this vital sector connect more efficiently to the national and global economy,” says Belemlih.

Currently only 27 percent of Ghanaians are financially included, and prepaid cards present a valuable opportunity to enable the unbanked citizen to transact electronically, without incurring the costs of maintaining a traditional bank account.  There are also lower barriers of entry for the unbanked as a person simply needs to present their proof of identity and in some instances, pay a once-off fee to obtain a prepaid card.

Electronic payments offer cardholders and merchants several benefits including being protected from the security risks and costs associated with cash.  For merchants, the ability to accept electronic payments means they can improve cash flow and increase their sales as consumers are not limited to the cash they have on hand.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.com.gh

ADVERTISEMENT