The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced recently that it has signed a partnership deal with financial technology (fintech) firm JustPayto Philippines Corp. to provide cashless, digital payment services to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
JustPayto is a technology company that makes the process of sending, selling, spending, and receiving money easy, simple, and convenient. It offers convenient inter-bank, inter-institution, inter-platform, and inter-currency money transfers. The company also creates a frictionless ecosystem with any bank, any financial institution, and any e-wallet.
Since its inception in 2015, JustPayto has been making traditional cash-based and digital cash-less payment methods work seamlessly together – from credit/debit cards and bank fund transfers to online banking, over-the-counter, e-wallet, and cryptocurrency transactions.
Partnership to help onboard DTI-registered businesses with JustPayto
In a press release, DTI Undersecretary Blesila A. Lantayona noted that their partnership with JustPayto will help onboard all interested DTI-registered businesses into the fintech company’s platform.
“We are very excited with this partnership as it will help further accelerate the digitalization of MSMEs nationwide,” Lantayona said.
Under the partnership, all registered merchants enrolled with JustPayto will have the ability to accept both online and in-store payments including Visa and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards, bank transfers, and electronic wallets.
MSMEs will also have the ability to monitor their cash flow while building their credit history for taking on future loans.
JustPayto will also conduct entrepreneurship seminars and talks across various regions.
Aside from DTI, JustPayto is also partnered with Ayala Malls, Autosweep and Easytrip RFID, Petron, Bayad Center, FBDC, and Beep cards, among other companies. The company is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and licensed and regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The role of digital payments in the MSME market
In a related development, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual also said that the DTI is now seeking to bring about the economy’s digital transformation, stating that MSMEs would benefit greatly once they become digitally-driven enterprises. All they need now is support during the transition period.
As the digital payments ecosystem continues to grow in the Philippines, with businesses and individuals adopting digital instruments, the MSME industry has also begun to walk the talk on the digital payments initiative.
Thus, MSMEs have increasingly recognised the importance of adopting digital technologies to reduce inconvenience to their customers and suppliers, bring down the administrative burden on their business, as well as minimize the risk of losing essential records. And digitising payments is a necessary part of that story.
The eventual digitalization of MSMEs has a number of benefits.
These include improved cash flow, faster realization of funds, and increased store cost efficiency. A better understanding of spending patterns and the eradication of bad debts would both be facilitated also by a computerized record of payment transactions.
In the end, the DTI’s ultimate goal is for the country’s digital payment ecosystem to unlock massive value for MSMEs by helping them expand their customer base and provide upsell opportunities, thus reducing costs and creating a digital footprint that would enable easy access to credit at cheaper rates