Dear Member,
With formal banking services still severely lacking in many parts of Africa, the increased roll out of ATMs is one of the to increase financial inclusion, particularly in rural areas. In the August newsletter we look at how Ghana is making some headway in this regard, as well as sharing some of the latest news and upcoming events in the region.
News from the Region: Ghana Rolling Out ATMs for More Inclusive Banking Services
In Ghana, Capital Bank has implemented interbank transfers on all their ATMs. This means that customers can use the ATM to transfer cash to any other bank in the country.
This is the first service of is kind in the country where customers can select the receiving bank from a menu on the ATM, key in account details and transfer the cash.
Capital Bank has also fitted a number of its ATMs with biometric fingerprint authentication that enables users of E-zwich, the national Switch and Smart Card payment system, to make withdrawals.
Ghana is also seeing an increase in ATMs service rural areas with Odotobri Rural Bank rolling out ATM services at several of its rural bank branches.
Bernard Asamoah Boateng, The Board Chairman of the Bank, highlighted the importance of making banking services more accessible.
“ICT has become very essential in modern day banking and the Odotobri Rural Bank is leaving no stone unturned in this regard and will leverage the available ICT platform to beef up its customer service”, said Boateng.
This is formed part of a larger plan by the ARB Apex Bank, which is the administrative body mandated by the Bank of Ghana to oversee the activities of all rural banks in Ghana which has embarked on a project to roll out ATMs and its related services to rural and community banks nationwide.
This project includes the deployment of supporting infrastructure such as the issuance of pre-personalised EMV cards which enable customers to walk into any rural bank branch and receive an EMV debit cards within a few minutes.
Kind regards,
Andrew
Andrew Dean
Executive Director, Africa
ATMIA
andrew.dean@atmia.com
C: +27(0)82 577.9921
P: +27(0)21 762.3225
