Chief of Staff at the Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Augustine Blay has taken to his personal social media platform to encourage Ghanaians to take advantage of the newly introduced QR Code system in the country to transact business.
Demonstrating how the platform works at any point of sales (PoS), the Vice President’s Staffer on two occasions shared pictures of himself on his LinkedIn platform using his smartphone to scan GhQR merchant addresses to effect payments at different shopping outlets in Accra.
Mr. Blay who used his first transaction post to demonstrate how the QR code works confirmed using Ghana QRCode platform to pay for his furniture and went ahead to reiterate that digitization has taken over the country’s financial space.
“I used the Ghana QRCode platform to pay for furniture at Furniture City. It was great to eat my own dog food. Do you know what I am saying? Digitization in Ghana has taken over the financial sector,” he said.
But during his second engagement at Ernest Chemist, a popular pharmaceutical shop in Accra, Augustine Blay this time urged the general public to go digital, stressing that if banks in the country have not yet implemented the QRCode integration, customers should mount pressure on them to integrate.
“Clearly the merchant QR code has to be a bit higher so I don’t have to bend over. But let us do it,” he added.
Ghana’s Universal Quick Response (QR) Code was launched in March, 2020 by the Vice President H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Following the launch, the Vice President together with the Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful have embarked on series of campaigns to help educate the general public on the advantages of the new GhQR.
To use the QR code to pay, the user opens the payment app once the total transaction amount is set in the POS system of the retailer.
The QR code payment app displays a QR code that identifies with the user’s card details. The retailer then scans the QR code, concluding the transaction.