Good Progress for Hawkers Go Digital Programme

SINGAPORE – 12 AUG 2020

The Hawkers Go Digital programme, launched on 8 June 2020, has made good progress, with a growing number of stallholders offering e-payments and receiving their E-payment Bonus.

Enterprise Singapore (“ESG”), Infocomm Media Development Authority (“IMDA”) and the SG Digital Office (“SDO”) announced that more than 2,000 stallholders have received the E-payment Bonus under the Hawkers Go Digital Programme¹. This makes up about 60% of the existing 3,500 stallholders offering e-payment in June 2020.

Over the past two months, SDO’s Digital Ambassadors (DAs) have reached out to a total of 15,900 stallholders at 700 coffee shops and 112 NEA hawker centres and markets and 13 HDB markets operating in government-owned premises. As a result of these efforts, 1,900 new stallholders have adopted the unified e-payment solution as of July 2020, bringing the total number of adopters to 5,400 to date².

The Hawkers Go Digital programme’s good progress is encouraging and SDO will continue its outreach efforts with the aim to get more stallholders to adopt e-payment. The programme was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat in his Fortitude Budget speech in May. The multi-agency effort to drive e-payment adoption among hawkers and stallholders and accelerate the roll-out of a unified e-payment solution nationwide is led by ESG and IMDA, supported by SDO’s DAs, Housing and Development Board (“HDB”), JTC Corporation (“JTC”) and National Environment Agency (“NEA”).

Said Ms Jane Lim, Assistant Chief Executive, IMDA: “We are heartened to see more stallholders adopting the unified e-payment solution, and their customers supporting them using e-payment for their transactions. These early results are encouraging, and I want to assure all our stallholders that the Government will spare no effort to help them strengthen their productivity and competitiveness through digitalisation. I urge our stallholders who have not yet signed up or who need assistance doing so to reach out to our DAs, who will provide you with all necessary assistance to make this convenient and secure payment option available to your customers.”

Said Mr Ted Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Singapore, “The COVID-19 situation has significantly accelerated digital transformation in enterprises, regardless of size. The adoption of e-payment is an important first step towards digitalisation for food services businesses, including hawker centres, coffee shops and canteens, in our heartlands and industrial estates. We urge all stallholders to embrace e-payment which will enable them to operate more efficiently and safely, minimising physical contact with their customers during this period and for the long term.” 

Hawkers Go Digital Programme

The Hawkers Go Digital programme helps stallholders kick-start their digital transformation journey with digital solutions such as e-payment. The programme builds on existing efforts³ to drive adoption among stallholders to help them minimise physical interaction and the handling of cash.

Accelerate adoption of the unified e-payment solution

To encourage adoption, an E-payment Bonus of up to $1,500 ($300 per month for any five months) will be given to all stallholders (both existing users and new sign-ups by 31 December 2020) who have demonstrated sustained use of the e-payment solution. This initiative aims to reach out to 18,000 stallholders by June 2021.

A bonus of $300 will be paid for each month to stallholders who have completed at least 20 transactions on the unified e-payment solution. Each transaction must be at least $1 and must be completed by 31 May 2021. The bonus will be paid the following month. All applicable bonus of up to a total $1,500 will be paid by 30 June 2021 for transactions made in May 2021. The Government will also bear the transaction fees (i.e. merchant discount rate payable by merchants) until 31 December 2023⁴.