Trinidad and Tobago becomes 1st Caribbean nation to adopt India's UPI digital payment platform

Trinidad and Tobago became the first country in the Caribbean region to adopt India’s flagship Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Digital Platform.

High Commissioner Dr Pradeep Rajpurohit and Dr. Alvin Hilaire, Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago, witnessed the exchange of Agreement India’s NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) and Ministry of Digital Transformation at the Ministry’s headquarters in Port of Spain on Wednesday (September 26, 2024).

UPI has emerged as the most preferred payment mode in India, with about 15 billion transactions taking place every month.

The technology is expected to streamline financial ecosystem of Trinidad & Tobago with several benefits including reducing dependence on cash, bringing down cost of payments to be paid by the citizens, bringing transparency in the transactions, supporting financial inclusion of the population, among others, thus paving way in the direction of a cashless society.

UPI in Trinidad and Tobago would enable access to fast payment technology with a greater autonomy and flexibility in handling financial transactions and bank services. 

As of now, a total of seven countries including UAE, France, Singapore, Nepal, Mauritius and Sri Lanka have adopted the UPI technology with Namibia and Peru have signed agreements in this regard and Trinidad and Tobago is the latest country in this club.

The newly signed agreement offers the Government of Trinidad and Tobago with complete and full ownership of the platform along with complete feasibility into its operations for control and improvement, capacity development in the ever-evolving technology and innovative payment expertise via sustained skills transfer. 

This collaboration also aims to assist Trinidad and Tobago to modernise its financial ecosystem. 

It is now being anticipated that the citizens, business community, banks as well as the government of Trinidad and Tobago will be benefitting from adoption of UPI technology by the financial system of the island nation as the platform helps in minimizing the dependence on cash and bringing down the cost of payments by the citizens.