Digicel Fiji announced a new partnership with the Sugar Cane Growers Fund (SCGF) where beneficiaries will be able to access loan disbursements and receive financial assistance through the MyCash mobile wallet.This partnership allows beneficiaries with a Digicel SIM to opt to receive SCGF financial programmes such as loans in their MyCash wallet. Using MyCash, beneficiaries will be able to use the wallet to support their communities and livelihoods whilst continuing to develop their farms and enhance production.
SCGF beneficiaries who are MyCash customers will also be able to send and receive money anywhere in Fiji with no fees, shop with contactless payment with QR Scan & Pay, buy recharge or an All In prime bundle data plan, and pay bills for themselves or their family at anytime and anywhere with their mobile wallet. Farid Mohammed, Digicel Fiji CEO, said; “As a digital operator, we are pleased to be able to provide a solution for sugar cane growers to access money securely without the need for a bank account. MyCash is perfect for beneficiaries who do not have access to a bank account as the mobile wallet allows access to daily financial transactions in the convenience of their Digicel mobile.”
Raj Sharma, SCGF CEO, said; “We are honoured and proud to be associated with Digicel Fiji for MyCash mobile wallet. This brings another stream of choice for our growers for payment median, in addition to banks and other platforms. There are about 11,622 active cane growers of which 6565 have loan accounts with SCGF. We have 10,568 loan accounts valued $29.587 million (at 31st August 2021) which is 58% of the market share of the cane farm loan portfolio.”
“SCGF annually approves up to 2,500 loan applications with yearly disbursements of around $8M, consisting of over 2,000 transactions. In addition, there are about 5 cane payments for 6,500 growers meaning another 30,000 payment transactions. There are over 32,000 transactions generated from SCGF in 12 months and most goes through the banks,” added Sharma.
SCGF’s Information Technology Manager, Sheetal Shailini, commented; “We are concluding our new ICT project with Online Portal, mySCGF App, SMS gateway with many other advanced and secured technological services to improve the services for the growers.” Digicel’s Regional Head of Financial Services, Anup Kumar, said; “Expanding financial inclusion is a key goal for MyCash.
This partnership allows us to further reach this sector that the SCGF assists and is one of many partnerships we are currently working on to provide the people of Fiji with daily financial services.” Digicel is committed to bringing better digital experiences to Fijians and is working towards improving cashless and contactless payment options.