National Service Scheme to use electronic payment system

The National Service Scheme (NSS) in collaboration with the Unique Trust (UT) Bank on Wednesday distributed free e-zwich cards for the payment of monthly allowance to national service personnel in the Cape Coast metropolis.

The exercise, which is a Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GHIPSS) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) initiative, is to reduce mishandling of the cedi notes.

An official of the UT bank who spoke to the GNA on anonymity, said that the bio-metric card which has the details of its users as well as their finger prints is reliable and safe to keep money for future usage and also to reduce the inconveniences of joining long queues and waiting for group cheques.

He said that the usage of the cards will not be restricted within the boundaries of UT bank, but could be used in all the banks and that the cards could as well be used for any other business transactions apart from loading allowances.

He said the exercise has been completed in Accra and was now being extended to other parts of the country.

According to him, so far, they have covered about five districts in the Central Region consisting of Apam, Ajumako, University of Cape Coast (UCC), Mfantseman, and Cape Coast Central.

Some of the national service personnel the GNA spoke to expressed displeasure about the exercise and explained that most people who had  used  the e-zwich card complained  that it was inconvenient and comes with its own problems like network failure in the banks, and also the charge of  0.005%  deducted per transaction was on the high side.

Source: GNA