Tag: Partnerships

Hubtel, a leading technology company in Ghana, has demonstrated its commitment to developing top engineering talent in the country. The company recently honoured an invitation by the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana to attend proposal presentations of Final Year Projects for undergraduate students at the Department of Computer Engineering.  

As part of its mission to identify and groom top talent, Hubtel saw this as a unique opportunity to connect with the best and brightest engineering students in the country. By partnering with the University of Ghana, Hubtel aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry, providing students with practical experience and networking opportunities while also identifying top talent for its Engineering Department. This proposed partnership is also timely for the School of Engineering Sciences which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year.  

“We believe that investing in top engineering talent is critical to our success as a company,” said Augustine Adjei, Head of Engineering at Hubtel. “By partnering with the University of Ghana, we can scout and develop the best and brightest young engineers in the country, and provide them with the skills and resources they need to thrive in the industry.” 

In addition to attending the proposal presentations, Hubtel is also in talks to sponsor a portion of the graduation awards for the School of Engineering Sciences, including the best project work. This demonstrates the company’s commitment to supporting academic excellence and promoting innovation in the engineering field. 

As a progressive company, Hubtel is dedicated to staying at the forefront of technological innovation in Ghana and beyond. By investing in top engineering talent, the company is positioning itself as a leader in the industry.  

The proposed partnership between Hubtel and the University of Ghana’s School of Engineering Sciences highlights the importance of collaboration between academia and industry. By working together, companies like Hubtel can offer young engineering talents the needed opportunity to grow in the field, while also contributing to the development of the engineering field in the country.  

Hubtel’s commitment to developing top engineering talent in Ghana is unwavering, and in the coming months, the company will be expanding its efforts to other universities in the country. 

Accra, June 14, 2021 – Ghana’s direct bank-to-any-account contactless payment service myGhQR.com has been officially launched today by leading payments service provider, Hubtel, in collaboration with Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlement Systems (GhIPPS).

 myGhQR.com is Ghana’s first-ever self-service portal to enable direct bank-to-bank transfers. The service eliminates the need of paying in cheques or using POS card machine or displaying your bank account details in order to receive payments into your bank account. To receive payment you simply generate your GHQR code on www.myGHQR.com, display it at your point of payment and get paid instantly into your account when anyone scans to pay you.

The service allows anyone (businesses, small merchants and mobile money users) to receive payments from bank customers who have GHQR on their bank app.

The introduction of myGhQR.com follows efforts to make Ghana’s Universal Quick Response (QR) camera scan & pay service, one of the regular modes of payment that is easily accessible to customers and business outlets of any size. 

The GHQR payment gateway was launched in March, 2020 by the Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to add up to Ghana’s existing electronic payment channels as part of the larger cash-lite agenda.

Since its launch several banks have rolled out GHQR in their smartphone apps, including Ecobank, GCB Bank, Fidelity Bank, Calbank and GT Bank. Customers that use these bank apps can simply scan a GHQR code to pay an associated business or merchant. 

In an interview at the press launch, Hubtel’s Head of Products, Patrick Asare-Frimpong, emphasized the value myGhQR.com presents. “For the first time, we have a self-service portal that enables businesses and mobile money users of all kinds to generate a unique GHQR Code, link it to your account and receive payments instantly from GHQR users. You can pay anyone with a bank account by simply scanning a QR code from your bank’s app. This is simply a game-changer.” he said.

Generating a QR code is free. This makes it very convenient for anyone to generate a GHQR code.  Businesses, everyday service providers among others can create their own unique QR codes to receive payments into their bank accounts by visiting www.myGHQR.com

The introduction of myGHQR.com will further allow anyone with a bank account or mobile money to easily generate, print and display their own GHQR on any material to receive instant payment at standard industry fees of 1% capped at GHS 10 for the highest transaction values.

Three leading Ghanaian FinTech companies, Hubtel, ExpressPay and IT Consortium, have built Government’s maiden fully-integrated payments processing and settlements platform, Ghana.GOV to ensure efficiency in government services and revenue collection.

The online platform, commissioned by the Office of the Vice President in collaboration with the Ministries of Finance and of Communication, is a major step in the pursuit of the government’s vision of digitizing the economy and modernizing the way Government pays its bills, collects fees and charges for the benefit of all citizens, residents and visitors.

Hubtel, ExpressPay and IT Consortium are all local financial technology (FinTech) companies with many years of experience in providing digital payments and settlements among many other services to financial institutions, corporate organization, retail merchants, telcos, media organizations, utility service providers, schools and many more with high efficiency.

They each run platforms that, for instance, enable Ghanaians to easily pay utility bills digitally, either with mobile money, other digital wallets, or with their bank account.

They therefore designed the Ghana.GOV platform to enable all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to also provide services to the public, take and make payments on a digital platform.

In effect, Ghana.GOV, which is yet to be launched, is intended to be a digital services and revenue collection platform for the public sector, created to provide a single point of access to Government of Ghana services.

The homepage of the Ghana.GOV site indicate the public can access services from state institutions categorized under Passport Office, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Immigration Services, Births, Deaths and Marriages, as well as Police, Justice and Safety.

Other categories are on the portal are Social Services and Welfares, Health and Food Services, Energy and Petroleum, as well as Driving and Transportation. So when a visitor clicks on any of the categories, they will be directed to the respective institutions for service.

The services the portal seeks to deliver include processing of all payments and transfers (both electronic and cash) against predefined service flows of each MDA and MMDA, as well as managing post-payment workflow, customer notification, feedback and service ratings.

This, according to information available to TechGH24, will enable the Government of Ghana fulfil its ultimate goal of creating a cash-lite economy.

Block the leakage

But a key rationale for creating the Ghana.GOV platform is to cure the inefficiencies in Government’s domestic revenue collection, particularly MMDA collections, which leads to huge revenue losses every year.

For instance, the 2017 Auditor-General’s Report indicates that, inefficiencies in revenue collection by the MMDAs alone resulted in losses of over GHS2 billion.

It is also estimated that about 10 -15 per cent of Government’s collections are lost through theft, fraud and other schemes.

Indeed, government observed that with about 254 MMDAs and some 127 public organizations operating more than 2,000 physical points of services and revenue collection through mostly manual processes, it is not surprising that revenue collection is facing such challenges.

It is therefore government’s considered view that modern technologies presents a simple, proven solution to address the identified inefficiencies, block the leakages and significantly grow revenues, and the three local fintechs have proven efficient in providing such solutions.

Revenue boost

With the implementation of the Ghana.GOV platform, therefore, government expects to see a significant boost in revenue collection as a result of the impact of electronic payment on the systemic collection losses that are prevalent today.

Government estimates that digitizing collections via the Ghana.GOV platform will enable the it improve revenue by an some GHS3billion annually.

These expectations are rooted in scientific studies results, which have confirmed that providing simple to use electronic payments increases government collection by two times in some cases as people embrace the convenience that digital platforms offer.

Indeed, government also expects a a further positive boost in the revenue gains as the platform will help to expand the tax-net to include the informal sector tax payments, while offering the possibility for additional revenue from premium expedited services.

Ghana.GOV was originally scheduled for launch in June last year, but it has been postponed to later this year.

Source: techgh24

Ghana’s indigenous eCommerce & SMS messaging company, Hubtel.com has entered into a partnership with Visa, to expand access to seamless payments on its eCommerce platform.

This partnership with Visa provides consumers with access to more merchant services on Hubtel’s eCommerce platform. It also allows Hubtel to explore further innovative payment services such as “tap to phone,” amongst others, to reduce the dependency on cash, especially among small businesses.

The onset of the pandemic saw more Ghanaians turn to eCommerce as well as safe and secure marketplaces like Hubtel.com. This upsurge subsequently led to an increase in the usage of digital payments.

In partnering with Visa, Hubtel’s merchants will be able to access payments made by customers in real-time avoiding delays sometimes experienced in the settlement process. In addition, consumers can count on Visa’s trusted security tools and solutions to make their transactions secure.

Country Manager for Visa Ghana, Adoma Peprah commenting on the partnership said, “Working with Hubtel is part of our overall strategy to eliminate barriers to global commerce for merchants and consumers. Through this partnership, we aim to help them navigate the exciting opportunities in payments, develop game-changing products that address real consumer challenges, and enhance their speed to market.

We believe that partnerships are key to strengthening Ghana’s innovation pipeline, drive emerging technologies and, over the long-term, safeguard the sustainable growth of the payment’s ecosystem,” Adoma added.

Since 2005, Hubtel has delivered billions of business-critical SMS messages and pioneered mobile banking and online payments in Ghana.

Hubtel has positioned itself to dominate in eCommerce just as it has done with its transformational work in fintech and bulk messaging, and the company has continued to innovate for retailers and their customers; through seamless integration of shopping experiences in-store, online and on mobile.

Hailing the partnership with Visa, Alex Bram, CEO Hubtel noted that: “Payments are the core of our business which is why we have collaborated with Visa to continue delivering convenient, secure and seamless payment capabilities to our customers who have embraced eCommerce in the wake of the pandemic.“

It was an awesome day at the office today as we hosted reps from the MTN Global Graduate Programme.

During a Q&A session, the team engaged with some staff to learn more about what Hubtel does. The visit to Hubtel was part of their ongoing training in the MTN Global Graduate Programme.

The staff from Hubtel that led the Q&A sessions were:

About MTN Global Graduate Programme

MTN’s Global Graduate Development Programme seeks to source, develop, and accelerate top graduates from across MTN’s footprint in Africa and the Middle East. The programme offers a privileged experience that fast-tracks talented individuals into critical roles at MTN.

The MTN Graduate Development Programme combines both formal development in partnership with Duke Corporate Education and the MTN Academy, as well as on-the-job development through full employment and placement into a strategically aligned role.

The formal component includes modules at MTN’s 3 regional learning centres, located in Southern, Northern and Western Africa.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — SMSGH, a leading mobile content aggregation company based in Ghana today announced the finalization of agreements with Scancom Limited, operators of the MTN Ghana network to supply and distribute multimedia content via the MTNPlay mobile commerce portal; www.mtnplay.com.gh

The agreement will see SMSGH distribute its vast array of multimedia content such as;

• screensavers
• wallpapers
• polyphonic ring tones
• true ring tones
• videos clips
• games
• music tracks and
• mobile applications.

These content materials will be available for subscribers of the MTN Ghana network to download and own on their mobile phones. Content suppliers, musicians, mobile game developers, and graphical designers with the appropriate copyrights can now monetize the sale of these electronic materials as SMSGH boasts of the industry’s highest payout on revenue received from mobile networks.

To find out more about this, contact Afi Senya Ghamli (Mobile Campaigns Executive at SMSGH) via [email protected].