On March 8, Dr Nigel Clarke, minister of finance and the public service, announced that the first 100,000 Jamaicans to register for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) account after April 1 will receive a Jam-Dex J$2,500 deposit from the Government.  

Lynk, Jamaica’s latest digital wallet provider, which is offered through a company that is part of the NCB Financial Group, is currently rolling out an education programme to support this announcement and help Jamaicans get ready to take advantage of the launch of CBDC. 

“As the only digital wallet that can currently facilitate registering for a CBDC wallet, Lynk is uniquely positioned to support the Government’s effort to introduce CBDC, the digital form of legal tender of Jamaica – called Jam-Dex – to Jamaica,” said Vernon James, CEO of Lynk.

LYNK FOCUSED ON PEER-TO-PEER DIGITAL CASH EXCHANGE

According to James, Lynk, which was introduced to Jamaica in an open market pilot phase last December, already has close to 900 merchants and thousands of users sending and receiving cash with the Lynk app on their smartphones. 

Denise Williams, recently appointed chief growth officer at the company, explained that Lynk is currently focusing on peer-to-peer digital cash exchange and enabling customers to purchase from their favourite micro-merchants.

“This will give us much insight into customer behaviour as we continue to garner feedback from the public and get ready to expand our services to larger merchants and introduce features such as bill payments, mobile top-ups and cash-in/cash-out at NCB iABMs across the island, in the coming months,” she said.

Williams also added that the inclusion of the Jam-Dex wallet in the Lynk eco-system, “will only serve to widen the possibilities and bring even more convenience to the Jamaican public as we continue to expand our features towards our vision of becoming a financial super app. In addition to utilising Lynk to send and receive money, Lynkies (Lynk users) will also be able to access Jam-Dex as another form of currency in their Lynk wallet once Jam-Dex is launched and the currency made available to the public”.

Like Jam-Dex, Lynk is also focused on supporting the unbanked and underbanked community to help this segment of the population benefit from a broader range of financial services, which could also include cheaper loans. 

Williams noted that, with more than 80 per cent of Jamaicans being underbanked, the majority of Jamaicans are not fully able to participate in and utilise affordable mainstream financial services.

“We at Lynk plan to change this; our goal is to ensure that every Jamaican has access to safe, easy-to-use, and secure financial services. We believe that adding Jam-Dex to our portfolio will accelerate this goal,” she said.  

Lynk is now leading and participating in various public forums and discussions to answer questions on how the Lynk wallet works, how Lynk and NCB will facilitate the Jam-Dex wallet, and how customers can use both Lynk and Jam-Dex in their everyday lives.

“With us adding an additional J$250 welcome bonus for each new customer, we encourage customers to sign up to Lynk before the April 1 date so that customers can familiarise themselves with Lynk and learn how it easily fits into their everyday life while securing their space in line as one of the 100,000 people who will receive the Jam-Dex J$2,500 that Minister Clarke announced,” Williams concluded.