Accra, Jan. 15, GNA - Cheques throughout the country can now be cleared within two days, as the Codeline and Cheque Clearing system (CCC) becomes operational nationwide from Friday, January 15. The Ghana Inter-bank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) which announced this, explained that cheques were usually cleared between three and four days within Accra and Tema area, and one or two weeks or even more for cheques issued from the rural and peri-urban areas. "However, with the implementation of the electronic cheque throughout the country, cheques will clear very fast, in two days regardless of which part of the country it is paid," Mr. Archie Hesse, General Manager in-charge of Project and Business Development at GhIPSS said.

"This great achievement will drastically reduce the delays associated with payment for transactions using cheques," he added. GhIPSS began the implementation of the electronic clearing system also known as CCC, on a pilot basis within Accra-Tema area and after a successful pilot is extending the system throughout the country. Officials of GhIPSS say the introduction of the electronic cheque clearing system would bring confidence in the use of cheques because the delay associated with getting value for cheques would now be a thing of the past.

Mr. Hesse said salaries and other payments that were unduly delayed because of the long process in clearing cheques would no longer happen. Under the new system, when a customer pays in a cheque at the bank, the bank would not have to physically carry the cheque to a clearing centre. Instead, the cheque would simply be passed through a machine which would capture the image of the cheque and send it electronically to the paying bank, which would in turn approve the cheque electronically and after that the account would be credited. He advised people who issued cheques when they did not have money in their account to desist because now the clearing would happen almost immediately.

Mr. Hesse said in the near future cheques would be cleared within 24 hours.