The Acting Bank Governor, Bank of Sierra Leone, Ibrahim Stevens has in his recent engagement with media clearly simplified the operability of the National Salone Payment Switch. He told the media journalists that the process is expected to drive huge volume of customer needs and overall national interests in the uptake of the continuing digital financial services.

He furthered that the National Payment Switch is also expected to increase the interoperability of digital payments and access to financial services.

The Acting Bank Governor made this statement past Thursday, Bank of Sierra Leone Auditorium, Freetown.

He said the development of the National Switch was being executed under the country’s Financial Inclusion Project, implemented by the Government of Sierra Leone through a loan from IDA and World Bank.

The switch comprises three components includes, interoperability of digital payments, financing hardware, software and consulting services that are required to implement a switch that will be successfully ensuring the viability of the payments system through the switch, that will include point of sale (POS) terminals, mobile wallets and Government payments.

The Governor, Bank of Sierra Leone also disclosed the three service lines of the payment switch can take the form of a card switch, where the SaPS will connect all card issuing banks with all domestic Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and a point of sales devices that will allow any local card to be used in any local device.

The switch, he said provides an Instant Payment Platform to enable banks and mobile operators connect with the SaPS together to allow instant payments across all bank accounts and mobile money wallets.

A Hosting Service that will allow smaller financial institutions to issue cards and deploy ATM and Point of Sale (POS) device and connect to the card switch at a very low cost, the bank revealed.

The switch also makes provisions for inter banking / participant operability switching of card transactions between banks that is, ATM and POS sharing of infrastructure (ATM and POS) devices between banks switching of instant payments (money transfer) between banks, mobile operators and non-mobile operators.

The switch, the Bank noted can also facilitates interbank settlement, present daily statement obligations to BSL Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service and also makes available banks with their daily settlement obligations.

Cataloguing the merits of the system, BSL mentioned ATM switching benefits that includes the use of the nearest ATM from any bank, issuance of more cards to more customers, ensuring extra revenue from deploying ATMs, lower payment system costs, increase trade and commerce coupled with greater financial inclusion.