The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has plans to electronically distribute $4 billion to Jamaica’s poor this year with the man in charge of the ministry, Karl Samuda, having no intentions of issuing cheques.

Promoting a move towards the digital distribution of funds to those most in need, Samuda on Tuesday argued that “it is impractical to believe this can be done in the old traditional way”.

He added: “As part of the digital community, we have to use new techniques to get these benefits to the people who need them. It is beholden on us and the team to find ways to facilitate the distribution of resources that we are responsible for”.

Samuda was addressing the launch of a CAD$1.5-million digital distribution drive, a partnership involving his ministry, the Canadian High Commission in St Andrew and payment service providers, WiPay.

With the touch of a button, at the ministry’s North Street office in Kingston, Samuda used WiPay’s technology to distribute payments to 27,000 Jamaicans who can access their allotted $8,500 at any of hundreds of popular stores islandwide and at their convenience.

Pressing that button also prompted a special message to be sent to the beneficiary’s cellular phone which they will present, along with a Government-issued identification card, to claim their money.

“It’s a particular pleasure, because it speaks to assistance for persons who at times have very great challenges getting the benefits we give to them. These are persons in the past, who have had to stand in lines for a long period of time if at all they get through.

“If not, in some instances they have to send their relatives who are younger and more able to withstand the pressures of collecting money. They have to travel great distances over rough terrain and the objective of this exercise is to reach out and meet all the persons who need this kind of assistance. I want to thank the Canadian Government for making this contribution,” Samuda said.

Kingston resident Paula Malcolm accompanied the sisters, 71-year-old Lileith Curtis and 60-year-old Norma Smith, to the ceremony.

Malcolm pointed out that the sisters have experienced difficulty collecting Government benefits as she embraced the idea of digital distribution through WiPay.

“My neighbours are not fully employed right now. Miss Curtis has a number of health conditions and she has her prescription to fill each month for her eyes. She has heart condition and she has hypertension, you name it. It helps also in terms of getting any snacks she might need for the holidays to make the holidays a little better,” said Malcolm.

According to Curtis, God has been good to her during the novel coronavirus pandemic and she appreciates this gesture by the Government.

“My sister and my neighbour don’t leave me out. Despite the aches and pains here and there, I am still able to do my little chores. Little is much when God is in it. If it was even $2,000 we come here today and get, we would appreciate it. The thought counts,” said Curtis.

Smith, her younger sister, said “it is really great” to be able to experience the first-hand working of the system.

Aldwyn Wayne, chief executive officer of WiPay, the company providing the technology, congratulated the Government for taking a huge step in how it distributes money. He said the Caribbean is still somewhat behind in how it utilises technology in a cashless way.

“People are still lining up for cheque and going to the post office to collect money at a time when people are supposed to be social distancing. This technology will allow everyone with a phone – it doesn’t have to be a smartphone – to receive a text message and that message represents their digital ID and they can go to hundreds of locations across Jamaica and receive the benefits that they should because that digital ID proves who they are to that location,” said Wayne.