Government gets tough with utility providers

Vice President John Mahama

Henceforth, managers of the country’s utility service providers will be held accountable for their performances, says the Vice President, John Dramani Mahama.

The Vice President, who was speaking at the launch of eTranzact, said that the government was determined to improve the services of utility firms since their services play a critical role in the survival of businesses.

“Companies rely on the efficiency of certain public service for good business transactions, which includes dependable energy supply and standard information and communication technology infrastructure,” he said.

Additionally, he promised to ensure that government creates a conducive atmosphere to enable businesses to conduct their operations in a fair, responsible and socially responsive manner.

eTranzact is a pan-African organisation with operations in four other African countries; namely, Cote d’ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as Europe.

It is designed and developed by Africans for Africa and aimed at taking the continent’s payment systems to the next level without experiencing difficulties that the western world had to go through at the beginning of their journey into electronic payment system.

Its mission is to provide secure, convenient and cost ­effective means to make and receive payments. It is also expected to integrate the formal and informal sectors of the economy into a single financial community for business.

The introduction of the service has been lauded by many, especially against the backdrop of the fact that African countries are largely cash-based economies with over 60 percent of the money in circulation outside the banking sector.

The company’s decision to come into the country was made carefully and thoughtfully, and, with support from other stakeholders the current situation is expected to improve – increasing the flow of funds from the informal into the formal sector.

eTranzact is investing close to US$100 million into its operations to ensure that its merchants are provided with the widest range of payment-channels, ­mobile phones, the Internet, and bank outlets.

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah, said the financial sector remains reasonably healthy.

“It has seen a significant degree of transformation and now it is one of the most vibrant sectors of the economy”, he said.

He announced that by the end of June, a state-of-the-art automated clearing house and cheque code line clearing system would come on stream to reduce the time for clearing cheques to within 48 hours, ultimately throughout the country.

The financial sector and the underpinning payments and settlement infrastructure are the nerve-center of the economic system, and there is need to safeguard its soundness to ensure sustained growth and employment and raising the standard of living in a stable macro-economic environment, he said

The CEO of eTranzact, Valentine Obi, assured clients and prospective clients alike that it would employ every experience that it had garnered from around the world and every skill of its competent staff to offer services that would be comparable to any such service found anywhere in the world.

He said Ghana places an important role on the group’s activities, as it is going to help start up operations in other West African nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone among others.

Source: B&FT