Accra, July 16, GNA - The Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), has begun its rural banking roll out, targeting farming groups and businesses within farming communities.

The programme has started at Damang in the Kwaebibirem District of the Eastern Region, where an agro-processing company has begun paying farmers through the e-zwich.

The company, Obooma Farm Products limited buys palm fruits from farmers in the community and uses the biometric smart card to pay them.

About 1,200 farmers supply palm fruits to the company and so far more than 500 of them have been issued with e-zwich cards and currently receive their payments on the smart card.

GhIPSS together with financial institutions in the district enrolled the farmers.

Obooma Farm Products had previously paid the farmers using only cheques, which came with several challenges.

These included the soiling of the cheques from the farm gate before the farmers got to the banks, and the risk of losing withdrawn cash.

Mr Archie Hesse, General Manager in charge of Project and Business Development at GhIPSS, said the project would be extended to other farming communities in the country.

He said next year, GhIPPS would target yam, rice and cocoa farmers, adding that the objective is to introduce farmers to basic banking services to ensure their convenience.

Both commercial and rural banks in the targeted areas will have the Point of Sales (POS) devices.

In addition to the financial institutions the POSes will be placed at other outlets so that farmers can easily access their monies or load their cash on the card without having to travel long distances.

Touching specifically on the Obooma Farm Product e-zwich project, Mr Hesse said awareness was created in 34 villages in the Kwaebibirem District as part of the project.

He said a POS terminal has been deployed at the processing company while staff of the corporate entity was trained on the e-zwich POS terminal usage and management.

Mr Hesse said the team from GhIPSS and the banks interacted directly with more than 750 people before the enrolment began.

Some 17 merchants have also been identified to act as agents of the banks to provide the e-zwich

services in the communities.

Mr Hesse said the enrolment of farmers onto the e-zwich was very crucial because it was one sure way of bringing the large unbanked population into the banking system.

"Considering the relevance of these farmers to our economy, if we get as many of them to use the e-zwich, it will bring immense benefit to the economy" he said.