Gov’t moves to digitise welfare payments

THE GOVERNMENT is moving to digitise payments under its social and welfare programmes with the use of the island’s first digital wallet, Lynk.

The Government is initially targeting the disbursement of allocations to beneficiaries under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), and seasonal initiatives like the Christmas work programme, to reduce costs and simply the process of disbursement, collection and use of funds.

Lynk’s chief product officer, John Matthew Sinclair, said that the developers of the application have begun engaging government entities “that do micro payments in cash or cheques, to promote and utilise payments on the platform”.

He pointed out that the existing method is “inconvenient and expensive for both the Government and the recipient”.

The digital payment application will use JAMDEX, Jamaica’s Central Bank Digital Currency, which will be promoted as a viable method for the disbursement of funds.

“We plan to, through JAMDEX, do a lot of the government payments, enabling supporting entities such as the tax office and other government agencies on Lynk or digitally through the mobile wallet. It is easier, it will be faster, and it should be more economical, as it creates the convenience where Jamaicans don’t have to physically go and collect the cheque, then cash it and then use it,” Sinclair said.

He added that the aim is to have this feature offered through the Lynk app by Christmas 2022.

As part of the push to advance financial inclusion of among the population, and to make the process of payment and funds transfer easier for its users, Lynk aims to launch a remittance platform early next year, which promises the simplified convenience of digital payment.

Not only will this new addition allow for the receipt of remittances from the usual channels, but there are high hopes for expansion of the remittance feature once local regulations allow.

“We do have ambition to interface and interact with the larger wallets in America, which is where we have a very large diaspora. Therefore, access to that type of network will be very beneficial to the holder of those international wallets and the holder of Lynk. A big part of how that would work is the ability to remit and then we can get into how we interact with the digital channels thereafter,” Sinclair explained.

He disclosed that another convenient feature that Lynk users can anticipate, in a matter of weeks, is access to ABM networks where users can “cash in and cash out, free of cost and at any time of the day”.

This feature will be tested through 130 National Commercial Bank intelligent ABMs islandwide and does not require an account or bank-issued card.