Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS), Archie Hesse, has said that only one-tenth of workers’ salaries will be paid onto the e-zwich card in a statement that is intended to play down agitation on the public sector workers’ front.

According to Mr. Hesse, agreement reached with the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department and public sector worker groups is for 10 percent of workers net salaries to be transferred onto the e-zwich as part of efforts to boost usage and help advance the Bank of Ghana’s cashless economy agenda.

The assertion of the GHIPSS is different from the position of worker groups, whose understanding of the agreement is that all public sector wages will from this month be paid via the e-zwich card.

“After the discussions it was decided between the Controller and labour union that 10 percent should go onto the card and 90 percent should go into the workers’ bank accounts. This is because as public workers if you want to take a loan you cannot go past 40 percent of your salary. So the decision after all the discussions was that only 10 percent of their salary should go onto the e-zwich card and the rest will go into the bank accounts,” Mr. Hesse said.

For many public sector workers, the directive of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) that all public sector workers must enrol on the electronic payment system before the end of May this year will cause the workers to lose their salaries because the system is ‘dysfunctional’.

"The attempt at a unilateral imposition of the programme on workers is heartless and devoid of consideration for problems being encountered by users," said Dr. Isaac Bampoe Addo, President of the twelve labour unions kicking against the system.

However, Mr. Hesse in a media briefing in Accra on Monday dismissed the claims and misconceptions that the e-zwich card is ‘dysfunctional’ and creates a lot of problems for users who have already signed up to the system, adding that: “Sometimes merchants do not know how to operate the device and thereby blame it on the system.

“So far as GhIPSS is concerned, we started e-zwich some 8 years ago and we have never had a problem with the system. It has been 99.99 percent accurate. However, what people claim is ‘dysfunctional’ is sometimes when they want to make payments they are unable to do so. If they are referring to technical dysfunctionality, I would say no.

“There are instances that I have been to some shops where you see it boldly written that e-zwich payments are accessible there. But If you try to do any payment, the machine will tell you the system is not working. Then you ask the shop attendant why and she will say ‘it is network problem’. But the system does not require a network.

“So I ask them to bring it, and I show them how to use it. So sometimes it is a problem of the merchants not knowing how to use the system because they are not familiar with it. So from my experience, the fact that a merchant says the system is not working does not necessarily mean in reality the system is not working,” Mr. Hesse said.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has suspended implementation of the programme till further notice.