CHALLENGES OF ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEMS IN GHANA: THE CASE OF E-ZWICH

Abstract

Introduced in Ghana in 2008, the e-ZWICH is Africa’s first biometric electronic payment system. Though it was introduced four years ago to promote a cashless society, the level of awareness and patronage seem to be low and some have even predicted its failure in the near future. It is against this background that the study has been conducted to unravel the challenges and prospects associated with the e-ZWICH. The main task of this paper is to examine the challenges associated with the use of e-ZWICH in retail payments. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to fifty (50) e-ZWICH card bearers and thirty (30) non e-ZWICH card bearers. The Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and the Kruskal Wallis test were employed to analyse data from respondents. The study revealed a number of challenges that are militating against the success of the e-ZWICH service. Among these are link failure, frequent breakdown of machines, slow process of service delivery, long queues and inaccessibility of the point of sale devices before and after banking hours. The findings show that despite these challenges, the prospects of the e-ZWICH payment system are great among both users and non-users. Based on the findings, it is recommended that sensitisation workshops should be organised by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System to encourage Ghanaian companies and individuals and in particular the rural folks to patronise the service.