Ecobank Ghana has introduced Masterpass QR to boost
safe and secure digital payment via the mobile phone for booth the banked and
the unbanked.
Ecobank's Masterpass QR was designed by global card
and digital payment giant, MasterCard to integrate various payment platforms in
a safe and secure way for consumers, merchants and service providers. Ecobank
is the first to launch the QR code in Ghana and the code is dubbed Ecobank QR.
Coming a few months after announcing its successful
Kenya activation (read here),
it currently allows Ecobank account holders who have the Ecobank Mobile Banking
App on their smartphones to make payments at various sales points by just
scanning the Ecobank QR at a merchant's place. Those with feature phones can
access the service as well.
In that sense, therefore, the service enables
merchants like shops, restaurants, bars, food sellers, taxi/trotro drivers
among others to accept payment from mobile phones, cards etc without having to
use a point of sale (POS) device.
Ecobank Ghana Managing Director, Dan Sackey, said
the systems saves merchants the cost of buying POS devices and the risk of
handling loads of cash from sales, while the consumer has the luxury of access
to money in their account even when they do not have cash. "The payment is
instant and the merchant can also have instant access to their money. This
eliminates the cost of physical POS terminals and reliance on network or the
internet connectivity," he said.
Dan Sackey said the Ecobank Masterpass QR also keeps
records of transaction volumes and sales and therefore makes it easy for the
bank to offer financial support to the merchant upon request.
West African Regional Manager for Consumer
Distribution for Ecobank, Owuraku Asare told Adom News very soon mobile money
wallet holders would also be able to use the Ecobank Masterpass QR to make
payments from their mobile wallets. "Other banks will soon launch it and
it will help to boost financial inclusion in the country - help to boost the
drive towards a cashless society and ultimately reduce the cost of printing and
using cash," he said.
He noted that Masterpass QR is the safest digital
payment platform yet because it requires the use of a personal identification
number (PIN), which means no one can access another person's funds. Owuraku
Asare said Ecobank QR allows customers to make payments of up to GHC5,000 in
one transaction and up to GHC20,000 in a day.
Meanwhile, earlier, Lead of MasterCard for the
Middle East and Africa, Guarang Shah had told Adom News at the just-ended
Mobile World Congress that Masterpass QR will eventually allow all payment
platforms including even cards like Visa and others, other than MasterCard, to
be used for payment via Masterpass.
Guarang said the QR is designed to bridge the gap in
digital payment and globalize it such that any and everyone, whether banked or
unbanked can access any form of financial account they have to make payments
anywhere in the world. He said the integration if various payment platform was
in recognition of the fact that not everyone has a bank account but everyone
deserves the opportunity of convenience and safety when making payment.
"This innovation ensures financial inclusion
because it brings mobile money wallet holders onboard one global payment
platform - it also bridges the interoperability gap because the system is
designed to allow payment via other cards outside of MasterCard going
forward," he said.
Masterpass has already been launched in Pakistan,
and in Ecobank in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana and in also in seven countries in
just seven months. "Ecobank has currently signed a contract to extend the
service to all of its 33 markets in Africa and UBA (United Bank of Africa) has
also expressed interest in extending it to thousands of merchants across
Africa," he said.
Its main uses currently include uses at cinemas,
online shopping for bills payments, airtime top-up, for fuel purchase, payment
of taxi fare and restaurants among others.
Guarang believes Masterpass is a Pan-African
innovation that will facilitate financial inclusion is a very big way because
it does not matter what kind of account one holds, the services allows payment
with that account.
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