EMTECH, HaitiPay Demo CBDC Proof of Concept for Haitian Market

EMTECH, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure provider, has collaborated with HaitiPay to demo its first CBDC and FinTech proof of concept.

According to a press release Thursday (May 5), both companies are led by Haitian women. Their project constituted the first functional test of a CBDC that will be used in Haiti, designed to help both the banked and unbanked populations.

HaitiPay CEO Georges Andy René said they were “competing with cash.” René said the company converts regular phones into electronic payment devices, and can help a variety of people, including street merchants and rural farmers, implement a new digital lifestyle and access digital financial services.

“With our API enabled platform, we develop a new baseline ecosystem in Haiti, where security and traceability of transactions are building trust and unlocking value for Haiti’s young population,” René said.

The release noted that the issues in Haiti haven’t stopped the country from moving forward with FinTech innovations and ideas to innovate with digital money, adding that the financial infrastructure in Haiti is “ripe for leapfrogging common challenges found in more developed countries.”

“We are excited to collaborate with EMTECH and showcase how CBDC and fintechs can accelerate the digitalization of a cash-based economy,” said Pascale Elie, co-founder and chairwoman of HaitiPay. “According to the 2018 Finscope survey, 56% of Haiti’s population doesn’t have access to formal financial services.

“On the other hand, 67% of the population has access to a phone. We leverage this connectivity to build the new rails that will enable better access to financial services at the Bottom of the Pyramid.”

In other CBDC news, PYMNTS recently reported that Chinese residents have been paying taxes with the digital yuan as part of a pilot program.

Read more: China Experiments With CBDC Tax Payments

This started in March, when the Zhejiang Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation teamed with the Hangzhou branch of the central Peoples’ Bank of China to look into tax payments with the digital yuan.

Since then, several tax bodies have offered citizens ways to pay income tax, stamp duty, social security premiums and fees that way.