Some nine banks are ready to provide Quick Response (QR) Code services to shop owners and other merchants, following the launch of the electronic payment service on Wednesday.

This means that people who want to be set up to use QR Code can approach those banks for assistance.

The banks are Ecobank, GCB Bank, Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) and Zenith Bank.

The rest are Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Republic Bank and Cal Bank.

These financial institutions and others, which will come on board later, will work with Fintechs to generate QR codes for merchants.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, launched the universal QR Code (GH QR) and the Proxy Pay electronic payment services.

The two would add on to the plethora of electronic payment channels that the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) has rolled out over the years.

With the QR Code, customers can scan the codes displayed at various shops and other outlets with their smartphones to make payment.

Those who do not have smartphones can pay with their feature phones by dialing a code that will also be displayed at the merchant's location.

QR Code is cheap and easy to set up and a quick and secure way to make payments.

The Chief Executive of GhIPSS, Mr. Archie Hesse, was grateful to the banks for their support and urged the remaining banks to quicken their processes and also get on board.

Mr. Hesse indicated that shop owners and other merchants could approach any of the nine banks and get set up to use the QR Code.

The QR Code for payment is simple to set up as it only involves generating unique QR codes, which can be a mere sticker posted on the wall of the shops or on a small stand.

A wide range of businesses including taxi drivers, small shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, chop bars, restaurants as well as major service providers can all use QR codes for payments.