Licensed buying companies can now use e-zwich to effect payments

Licensed buying companies and agro-processing companies can now avoid the risk of moving huge sums of money around to pay farmers by using the e-zwich Payment Distribution System (PDS) to effect payments.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the General Manager in charge of Project and Business Development at GhIPSS Archie Hesse, said through the use of PDS the farmers could be paid from a central point in Accra or the location of the buyer and the money would be received by the farmers instantly.

“All that is required is for these farmers to have e-zwich card and thereafter any time the payment can be done electronically to them,” he said.

PDS is a payment system that enables quick disbursement of money of any amount to different recipient regardless of where they are in the country.

Mr Archie-Hesse said the system would make it easier for companies to pay farmers across the country without going through the risk of taking huge sums of money to effect payment.

Currently, payment to these farmers is done through cash and cheque in some cases.

The recipient company has to trek distances through the various farming communities in order to pay the farmers.

He said through the PDS farmers would then access their cash from any bank or e-zwich ATM.

Mr. Hesse cited the Cocoa Merchant and Obooma Farm Products who had immensely benefited from the use of PDS.

Mr. Hesse explained that the PDS was also extremely useful for accounting purposes because there were paper trails for every single transaction.

‘PDS takes away all those stories of theft, or disputes about whether some farmer has been paid or not, because there is a receipt generated for each transaction,” he added. aid and other details,” he said.

Mr. Hesse also urged banks to see PDS as an opportunity to reach out to the unbanked. “There is business in there for financial institutions and they can make some good returns” he added.

Source: GNA