GhIPSS urges Ghanaians to stop withdrawing huge cash, use digital payments to reduce robbery attacks

Mr. Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), a subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana, is urging businesses and individuals to desist from withdrawing huge sums of money from the bank and rather liaise with their financial institutions or mobile money operators to raise their thresholds to allow them to make big-ticket transfers.

According to him, this will help reduce the number of robbery attacks on persons who make big cash withdrawals from financial institutions.

As a result of past and recent robbery attacks on persons and institutions with huge sums of cash, various stakeholders including the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Association of Bankers and the Bank of Ghana have been working together to ensure the movement of money by banks, individuals and institutions is done safely.

The GhIPSS Chief Executive said individuals and businesses must also play their part to reduce the risk of being attacked.

Mr. Archie Hesse, in an interview said financial institutions in the country are open to raising the transfer thresholds of their customers if the necessary requirements are satisfied.

“The issue of threshold is linked to the Know Your Customer (KYC) details you submit before an account or wallet is opened for you. All banks for safety reasons will set a threshold, but if you feel that the threshold is not appropriate for your operations, you talk to your relationship manager for it to be increased.”

“If you are a wallet account holder then you will be able to put in one of three categories, lowest, middle or high. If the transfer threshold in your category doesn’t work for you, you can engage the service provider for the requirement to qualify for a higher band, and then you take steps to satisfy it,” he added.