The Bank of Ghana (BOG) has pledged to support commercial banks to introduce new financial products and services that will turn the economy into one that depends less on cash transactions. The bank will therefore work in close collaboration with all commercial banks to speed up the development of such services in order to move the public away from a cash-based economy.

Mr. Alex Bernasko, Secretary to the BOG said this in Accra yesterday when he launched the Social Security Bank Sika Card. The electronic card is designed to enhance internal payments in selected supermarkets, shops, and petrol filling stations by serving as an alternative to bank notes and cheques.

The card which will serve as an electronic wallet or purse enables merchants and customers to conduct transactions with one another and the bank without the use of cash thereby eliminating the counting of large sums of money.

Mr. Bernasko said the card has the benefit of security of sales records. He explained that the card will also reduce the need to hold cash by merchants. He said the reduced dependency on physical cash for transactions will have a long term benefit of minimising the frequency and cost of replacing the country's currency notes.

He said the card will also help mop up cash outside the banking system, thus making resources available to the banking sector for on-lending to the economy's productive sector to promote continuous growth of the economy.