While Ghanaians were enjoying the festivities surrounding the birth of Jesus, another birth was gradually unfolding. It is the story of a new app. Slydepay is the name and payment is the game.

After much testing and a trial period for fine tuning, tuning that confirmed the reliability of the app, the yuletide has become the entry point for introducing the product to the market.

Woven closely into the fun of the period, the new kid on the block was identified with a number of events where people from all walks of life were in attendance.

First at the special play enacted in honour of President John Agyekum Kuffuor, then at the Joyful Way Concert, the Joy Keteke Jam, December 2 Remember and a couple more plays by Ebo Whyte, patrons were greeted a number of eager volunteers who explained how the app works.

Those who signed on had the chance to win some gifts that included mobile phones, power banks, Bluetooth speakers and phone chargers.

Some new users shared their opinions about the new payment platform. Gifty Mensah of Accra who was at the National Theatre to watch The Smartest Man Alive, a play by Ebo Whyte, said she had heard about the app from a couple of friends. “I have downloaded it because my friends talk about a lot about it. I hope it does all that they told me. It should make payments easy. If it impresses me, I would do most payments with it.”

Kwame Lawson of Tema, after downloading the app said: “It looks very simple and useful. I intend to use it as often as possible. The whole world is going cashless so why not Ghana?

There were also some fence sitters who opted to wait till the new wind blows them fully in the cashless direction.

Created by Dream Oval, a Ghanaian software company and powered by Stanbic Bank, the application is a payment platform that allows users to link their cards to the payment system. Through this, users can buy airtime credit, pay bills and shop at select vendors around the country.

Slydepay is available on the IOS platform and on Google store.

Mawuko Afadzinu, Head Marketing and Communications for Stanbic described the introduction of Slydepay as one of the incremental steps by the Bank to further a cashlite revolution in Ghana.

“Our collaboration with Dream Oval combines two key drivers for the future: moving our partners forward and pushing for less use of cash in transactions.”