expressPay, Ghana’s leading financial technology company has launched an industry-first instant money transfer service in collaboration with Visa and local commercial banks.
This gives a big boost to the drive towards a cash-lite/cashless society and also promises to improve financial inclusion.
Dubbed, BankDirect, the service enables consumers to instantly send and receive money into their bank accounts from any Visa cardholder or mobile money wallet.
First of its kind in West Africa, expressPay’s BankDirect is expected to significantly change the mobile payments landscape by uniting traditional banking with mobile finance to the benefit of consumers.
CEO of expressPay, Curtis Vanderpuige said “Bank Direct effectively eliminates the need to travel to one’s bank to transfer or receive money.”
He explained that users can simply transfer money from their bank accounts or mobile money wallets to any bank account or any other mobile wallet with an associated Visa card.
Indeed, in the absence of interoperability between mobile money platforms in the country, the expressPay platform on which BankDirect runs, allows mobile wallet holders of one telecom network to transfer money into mobile wallet on another network,
“It is a convenient, seamless and secure way to send money to friends and family anywhere in Ghana and can be accessed from the comfort of your home or office,” Vanderpuije said.
Financial inclusion
He noted that with a substantial proportion of the Ghanaian population unbanked, BankDirect will foster financial inclusion, while capturing the informal economy, and enabling a cash-lite, and more money-efficient society.
“The service improves existing systems through interoperability while streamlining processes to use mobile money to connect with money in bank accounts. We are proud to work with Visa to make this revolutionary service possible,” Vanderpuije added.
expressPay’s BankDirect is the result of local innovation and global capability as the international payments gateway giant, Visa lent its full support to make the service a reality.
Vanderpuije said so far over 100,000 have downloaded and are using the expressPay App from various App Stores like Google Play Store, Apple Store and other platforms.
He said people use the platform mainly for airtime purchase, bills and school fees payments and for many other electronic transactions across the country.
In a speech read on his behalf at the launch, Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur noted the gallop towards financial inclusion and cashless society as reflected in the exponential growth in the volumes and value of electronic financial transaction over the last two years.
He however cautioned that players in that space should ensure the highest level security for their clients and users to boost public confidence in electronic platforms, on which the country’s drive towards a cashless society largely depends.
Country Manager for Visa West Africa, Ade Ashaye is happy that BankDirect makes for seamless peer to peer money transfers.
“Funds that are transferred via the Bank Direct service will be deposited directly into the recipients’ bank account and can be accessed through branded point-of sale terminals, ATMs and e-commerce merchants. Funds will also be available through other banking channels such as online banking, mobile banking, agents and branches,” he noted.
He is also glad that the service brings the advantages of Visa’s global network – security, reliability and global acceptance, while eliminating the long forms, complex routing numbers waiting time associated with conventional fund transfers.
How Bank Direct works
People can send money and receive from one bank account to another directly from their phone or computer by downloading the expressPay app (www.expresspaygh.com/app) on Google Play Store or the Apple Store.