Government wants to work with Bitt to improve payment transactions

Government is looking to team up with the Barbados-based financial technology company Bitt, to see where it can utilise its services to improve payment transactions.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Christopher Sinckler, recently acknowledged the above ashe lauded Bitt Co-founders Gabriel Abed and Oliver Gale, for the enthusiasm shown in pushing ahead to advance the business and bring it to the global stage.

 

Bitt is a financial technology company utilising cutting-edge technologies, to bring the field of digital currencies to the Caribbean. Bitt offers an innovative alternative to the traditional banking system, as Bitt’s services allow all financial transactions to become digital and mobile.

 

“Even though the Barbados Government is small in terms of size, the volume of transactions is quite large. It can go into millions of transactions, over the period of a quarter or a year. One of the things that Government has been … slow with (over the years) is technological innovation. We’ve been trying to get ourselves in on various E-platforms, to permit for such things to happen,” the Finance Minister commented in reference to the potential Government/Bitt partnership.

 

“As you know, we started a major project in relation to our taxes, but even that needs to be speeded up because people need to have ways in which they can transact business with Government, pay taxes, procure services and so forth or give services to Government and receive payment for them electronically, so that we can build a more efficient economy,” Sinckler stated.

 

“So our goal really is to see how we can work with the company to identify those silo areas, that we can begin the process of engaging with this new technology and see how it works,” Sinckler acknowledged.

 

The Finance Minister, however, noted the need to bring some of the country’s aged legislation up to date, to allow for financial transactions on an e-platform to take place. Noting that Government has been trying with traditional financial institutions to see how it can improve Government’s payment system, so as to reduce complaints about the long wait in long queues and the like, Sinckler however said that there is a hefty cost factor involved, given what some traditional financial institutions have said they will require to facilitate these financial transactions on an e-platform.

 

As such, he said Government is quite interested in exploring a partnership with Bitt going forward. (RSM)