GH¢4.6b Interoperability: Stop talking ‘rubbish’- Sibton CEO fires Bawumia

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.” These, we can confirm were the exact words of the Chief Executive Officer of Sibton Switch Systems, Mr Peter Denzil Lawson.

The controversial Mobile Money Interoperability platform which was launched by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was allegedly executed by Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlements Systems GhIPSS for $4million, an alleged huge reduction from the GHC4.6 billion earmarked for the project by the previous administration which was to be executed by Sibtons switch.

Dr Bawumia who launched the project announced the saving of billions of cedis which was allegedly going to line the pockets of private individuals in the John Mahama government, had this government not acted quickly.

But the CEO of Sibtons Switch believes Dr Bawumia is talking rubbish, straight.

He explained what he thinks is the case for his outfit:

“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.” He explained.

He said the charges they had for Ghanaians, compared to what we got under the current system launched by VP Bawumia, was better as they were charging 1.5% whereas the current one charged 2.5%.

Hear him:

“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”.

when Mr. Lawson spoke to Morning Starr host Francis Abban this morning.