Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia insist that government has saved the country several millions of cedis on the total cost at which the now controversial Mobile Money Interoperability platform was procured.
Addressing participants at a ceremony to officially launch PaySwitch Company Limited at the Accra Marriott hotel, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia said out of three bids under the previous government, the highest bid of some 4.6billion cedis was the bid chosen. Having executed the same scope of work with 4 million cedis obviously shows that the State has saved a great deal of money.
But the Chief Executive Officer of Sibton Switch, Denzil Lawson, has described as rubbish claims that Ghana would save over 4 billion cedis in the Mobile Money interoperability deal.
According to him, the current deal with the Ghana Interbank, Payment and Settlement System (GHiPSS) will eventually cost the country more than Sibton Switch would have made over the 20 year period.
According to Mr. Lawson, Sibton would have executed the contract using a self-financing mechanism to raise the GH¢4.6 billion on their own to build a robust interface intended to ensure efficiency and safety.
“Under the Sibton deal there was no expenditure by the government of Ghana or anybody. It was a build and operate module. We were making all the investments and putting all the infrastructure in place for a charge revenue over a period which was much cheaper than what is being charged by the Bank of Ghana.
“It is all rubbish…people saying that they saved the country billions of dollars by doing it with the Bank of Ghana is rubbish. The simple fact is the sibton contract had no cost at all to Ghana, the Bank of Ghana solution has cost the country 4 or 5 million dollars.
“Our fees and charges are much less than what is being charged by the Bank of Ghana. So we were going to provide the infrastructure for zero and provide interoperability which was agreed between the Bank of Ghana and the telcos at 1.5 percent which is less than the 2 and a half percent that interoperability cost today,” Mr. Lawson told Morning Starr host Francis Abban Wednesday.
The Mobile Money Interoperability platform has been executed by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) for 4million Ghana cedis, a huge reduction from the GHC4.6 billion earmarked for the project by the previous administration.
