e-zwichSmart card authenticated by fingerprint, usable offline and without an existing bank account. It is the rail for Ghana’s government payments (public sector salaries, national service allowances, social programs) and one of the few cashless instruments truly accessible to the unbanked. Biometric rather than PIN verification sets it apart among African schemes.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana) · since 2008
Global registry · Africa & Middle East · West Africa
Ghana Payment systems
16 systems listed.
CurrencyGhanaian cedi (GHS)
Domestic schemegh-link (GhIPSS)
RegulatorBank of Ghana (BoG)
Leading payment methods
Mobile money (MTN MoMo)CashCardsA2A (GhIPSS)
E-commerce shares
Wallets · 50%Cards · 20%Account-to-account · 15%Cash · 12%Other · 3%
MTN Mobile Money. Mobile money outweighs the banks in everyday payments. MTN MoMo dominates, and GhIPSS provides nationwide interoperability (mobile money ↔ bank accounts, an African first in 2018).
Mobile money value≈GHS 3,010 billion (2024, +57%, BoG)
Mobile money transactions8.1B (2024)
The tax on electronic transactions (the e-levy, 2022) temporarily drove volumes down, a public-policy lesson: taxation can break trust in digital payments. It was repealed in 2025.
Learn about this market. The guides and courses that cover it.
Payments in GhanaPayments in East AfricaPayments in Portuguese-speaking and southern AfricaMobile money in AfricaPayments in West and Southern AfricaPayments in the CEMAC zoneAccepting payments in AfricaAccepting payments in Egypt and the MaghrebAccepting payments in the GulfCollecting payments in Kenya and East AfricaCollecting payments in Nigeria and West AfricaPayments in Africa: the continent that reinvented mobile money
Card schemes
GhDual CardDual-interface card combining e-zwich and gh-link functions on a single card: one card for offline biometrics and for the interbank ATM and POS network. A pragmatic response to the fragmentation of Ghana’s domestic instruments.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana)
gh-linkGhana's national switch and domestic card brand. It connects banks and third-party providers across ATM, POS, and web channels, switches all interbank transactions, and calculates their net settlement at the Bank of Ghana. The other GhIPSS services (GhQR, GhIPSS Instant Pay, mobile money interoperability) run on this switching layer, and it is the domestic alternative to the international networks.Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana, incorporated in May 2007 to run the country's interoperable payment infrastructure) · since 2012
Instant payments
GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP)Real-time account-to-account interbank credit transfers. The key point in Ghana: GIP matters less than MMI (mobile money interoperability), because the country’s payments grew up around mobile money, not bank accounts.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana) · since 2016GhIPSS across all platforms: 530 million transactions in 2025 (up 31.7% from 402.5 million in 2024), worth GHS 1,730 billion (up 50% from GHS 1,150 billion) (GhIPSS, 2026). Stated target: 1 billion transactions by the end of 2026. GIP limit: GHS 50,000 per transaction.
Clearing and settlement
Automated Clearing House (ACH Direct Credit / ACH Direct Debit)Ghana’s ACH, working in both directions: Direct Credit for outgoing bulk payments (salaries, suppliers, pensions) and Direct Debit for recurring mandate-based collections. It is the bulk building block missing from any inventory of Ghana that lists only the GIP instant rail and mobile money.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana)
Cheque Codeline Clearing with Cheque Truncation (CCC)Check clearing by truncation: the image and codeline travel, while the paper stays with the presenting bank. A residual rail by volume but still in service, and still important for Ghanaian corporate payments.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana)
Wallets
GhanaPayBank-run wallet launched to take on MTN MoMo on its home turf, with free transactions. It never took off, which makes it a useful counterexample of a late bank response to an entrenched telco.GhIPSS and Ghanaian banks · since 2022
Chipper CashCross-border wallet for person-to-person transfers within Africa and to the US, plus virtual cards and stock trading. Two corrections to the original entry: the operator is not “Chipper Cash Inc.” but Critical Ideas, Inc., and Kenya is no longer among the six countries it says it serves. User figures remain self-reported and unaudited.Critical Ideas, Inc. (company operating the Chipper Cash brand; the US issuer registration (NMLS 2266748) is held by Voyse Technologies US, Inc.)More than 5 million users and more than 250,000 transactions a day claimed, and more than 1 million virtual Visa cards issued (chippercash.com, accessed August 2026)
Mobile money
Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI)Platform that makes MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash, and AT Money interoperable with each other and with bank accounts. It is the most frequently cited mobile money interoperability model in West Africa.GhIPSS · since 2018
MTN Mobile Money Ghana (MML)The dominant operator in Ghana, spun off into a subsidiary with its own EMI license, separate from the telecom operator. Other countries have copied this regulator-mandated separation model. The float has become a prudential issue in its own right.Mobile Money Limited (subsidiary of MTN Ghana (licensed as an EMI by the Bank of Ghana)) · since 2009GHS 4.1 trillion in transactions and a float of GHS 38.4 billion in 2025 (MTN Ghana / MML results, March 2026).
Interoperable QR
GhQRGhana’s universal QR standard: technically deployed, commercially disappointing. A useful case showing that an interoperability mandate alone does not create merchant usage.GhIPSS · since 2020
MMI (Mobile Money Interoperability)The first African system to make mobile wallets interoperable with each other AND with bank accounts and e-zwich cards, nationwide and under a regulatory mandate. Tanzania and Rwanda later copied the model. It is not a QR system: Ghana’s national QR standard is GhQR, a separate GhIPSS service for merchant acceptance.GhIPSS · since 2018Included in GhIPSS’s 530 million transactions in 2025; no breakdown by service published.
Acquiring and processing
DPO Pay (formerly DPO Group / Direct Pay Online)Online acceptance provider operating in East and Southern Africa, now under the Network International brand. The original entry flagged the ownership chain (Network International, then Brookfield) for due diligence: only ownership by Network International is confirmed by a primary source; the move under Brookfield’s control is not confirmed here.Network International (the service now trades as “DPO Pay by Network”; the DPO acquisition was part of Network International’s 2016–2021 regional expansion phase, and its Africa headquarters is in Nairobi.)Claimed presence in more than 20 countries, with a country selector covering 11 markets (dpogroup.com, accessed August 2026)
Central bank digital currency
eCediPilotGhana’s retail CBDC, billed at launch as Africa’s first general-purpose CBDC and still at the pilot stage since September 2021. It matters mostly for what did not happen: no broad rollout several years on, in a country where mobile money already handles most retail payments.Bank of Ghana (designed with technology company Emtech; announced in June 2021 by Governor Ernest Addison, with a claimed offline payment capability) · since 2021
Other
Proxy Pay ServiceAlias addressing service: pay a bank account or wallet from a simple identifier without knowing the account number. It is the directory layer that GIP and MMI needed before Ghanaian interoperability could work for customers.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana)
Request to PayPayee-initiated payment request that the payer approves in their app: Ghana’s equivalent of European request-to-pay schemes, running on the GIP instant rail. A collection tool for billers, not to be confused with ACH Direct Debit, which does not require approval for each payment.GhIPSS (Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd) (wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana)