The President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers –Ghana, Mr. Clifford Duke Mettle has appealed to public sector workers to accept government’s decision to move them onto the E-Zwich system to reduce human interference in the payment of salaries.
Public servants in the Greater Accra region were directed by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to obtain E-Zwich cards to facilitate payment of salaries or have their salaries suspended by May 31.
The announcement received a sharp response from the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG) which warned that the move will be vehemently opposed.
However, speaking to Citi Business News at the sidelines of the MTN Executive Breakfast Meeting, Mr. Mettle stated that the innitiative will enhance public payroll system and help clean all ghost names from the database.
“I will encourage all Ghanaians to use the E-Zwich system because apart from the fact that it is reliable, it will also improve the financial inclusion the GhIPPS has been advocating for”, he said.
Touching on the need to encourage financial inclusion, Mr. Mettle stated that the system can serve as an avenue to move the informal sector of the economy to join the banking population.
“We always talk about moving the informal sector which is highly unbanked to the financial sector, I think the E-Zwich system is a good opportunity to do this,” he said.
According to him, encouraging Ghanaians to use the system will also help channel funds from the section of the population that do not require cash immediately to transact business.
He stated that the volume of money held by the informal sector could be used productively to fund other sectors of the economy that readily need money for infrastructure development.
He maintained that, moving the economy into a cashless society will have a lot of advantages and help create jobs for Ghanaians.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana