Cooperative movement to have digital payment platforms

In a bid to help advance their business, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Business is working to introduce the use of digital payment platforms to the cooperative movement over the course of the year.

Delivering remarks at the A Village-A-Fair, at Golden Square Freedom Park, in celebration of International Day of Co-operatives on Saturday, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Business Sandra Husbands said this was one way to accelerate spending amongst consumers.

“One of the things that will bring a tremendous transformation will be the fact that if you can easily do a transaction simply by making use of new forms of digital payments like the government’s EZ Pay program, all of this helps to accelerate value to cooperatives because we can more easily make transactions or transactions can be safer because we’re not walking around with actual cash money, but we are using our telephones to enable us to accept money from each other and to be able to pay our bills,” she said.

Stressing that cooperatives must embrace the technology or risk being left behind, the Minister highlighted its benefits in expanding businesses.

“It makes it easier for you to keep track of what your business is doing, what it is earning, what it is spending and therefore, it makes it easier for you to produce the account that you will need to prove to others what your business is doing especially when you may be applying for a loan. You now have a digital way of tracking what is happening in your business. And so, introducing our cooperatives to the use of digital payments is going to be one of the objectives that we will have for this year to make sure that all our members understand how this can help and advance their business and give them the ability to use technology comfortably, safely, confidently,” she stated.

Husbands also said that Barbados’ cooperative movement should look to create linkages with others across the world to build additional businesses.

“In the United States, (and) in Europe, many cooperatives have been able to develop their own cooperative shops and supermarkets where they are able to take the goods of their members and be able to sell it across their country to their regular citizens. And so there are many powerful coops that have been able to make money for their members by being able to build out these retail distribution outlets where people can buy the goods of cooperatives.

“And we felt very strongly that Barbados needed to connect into this particular network so that we are able to identify coops that can work with us and we can find potential places for very excellent products we see here to make them available to those coops across the sea and use that brotherhood, that sisterhood to give us the advantage of being able to get our goods ready for export,” she stated.

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