The Government of Ghana on Friday, 4th February, 2022 launched an E-Travel Card which seek to facilitate cashless disbursement of traveling expenses and allowances of public officials.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana
The official launching of the E-Travel Card was spearheaded by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the 2022 Annual Conference of Controller and Accountant General’s Department at the University of Cape Coast.
As stated earlier in my first paragraph, the e-Travel Card is to facilitate cashless disbursement of traveling expenses and allowances of public officials.
According to Dr. Bawumia, this innovative initiative forms part of government’s Digitalization agenda aimed at building a cashless economy.

The E-Travel Card
More importantly, the e-Traveling Card is to ensure proper accountability, effective monitoring, control and avoid risks of carrying cash.
The launch saw in attendance the Central Regional Minister, Hon. Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, Second Lady Samira Bawumia and Management of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.

Hon. Mrs. Justina Marigold Assan – Central Regional Minister
In a detailed explanation to the E-Travel Card, Ghana’s Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia wrote;
Since Independence, public officials are provided cash for their imprest when they travel. This system has many associated problems including the risks of carrying cash, fraud in the disbursement of imprest, the increasing use of cashless payment channels in many jurisdictions, ineffective monitoring and controls, etc.
Today, that era is coming to an end with my launch of the e-Travel Card to facilitate the cashless disbursement of travel allowance and other payments for local and foreign trips of public officials. All officials will be issued with the e-Travel card and their imprest and per diem for travel will automatically be put on the card for use.
The e-Travel Card is expected to deliver several benefits, including the elimination of the risk of carrying cash; transparency and ease of accountability; timely retirement of accountable Imprest; and improved monitoring and controls of budgetary allocations for official travels to avoid overspending.
The era of cash for travel in the public sector will soon be over, bringing further transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
Source: Sintim Media