Jamaica plans to release digital currency in coming months

A central bank official said Jamaica would roll out its digital currency across the country in the first quarter of this year as part of a drive to decrease transaction costs and give financial services to residents who do not use banks.

The Bank of Jamaica said in December that it has completed a pilot project to print 230 million Jamaican dollars (US$1.5 million) of the new currency, following a similar attempt by a consortium of Eastern Caribbean countries.

In an interview with Reuters late last week, Natalie Haynes, a deputy governor at the Bank of Jamaica for banking and currency operations and financial markets infrastructure, said, "The majority of Jamaicans are financially disenfranchised."

"We decided that the central bank digital money would be an excellent opportunity to attract those people into the official financial system."

Each year, the bank intends to replace 5% of Jamaican dollars with the new digital currency, according to Haynes.

JMD $5 million ($38,000) was granted to Jamaica's National Commercial Bank, a private financial institution, while JMD $1 million ($6,000) was issued to Bank of Jamaica personnel.

According to the Bank of Jamaica, NCB has signed up 57 consumers to utilise the new currency.

"It's a unique form of paying that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions," said John-Matthew Sinclair, chief product officer for TFOB (2021), an NCB subsidiary.

Customers create a digital wallet in which they can deposit monies in return for digital currency, which can subsequently be used to make purchases.

Jamaica's digital currency is modelled after DCash, a similar initiative launched by a coalition of Eastern Caribbean countries last year.

DCash is now used in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent. The Bahamas issued digital currency for the first time in the area in 2020.