The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian digital payments provider yesterday said it is rapidly expanding its network of Family Island fast-pay kiosks as requests to partner with it continue to mount.

Sean Smith, SunCash's business development manager, told Tribune Business that community partnerships are essential to this growth. Its fast-pay kiosks are designed to replace the commercial bank branches that have been shuttering, and exiting, the Family Islands over the past decade.

“The growth of our kiosks is going well. It is really tied to our current business model, which has been whatever the customers have been requesting more consistently. We are trying our best to try answer their needs," he said.

“In the Family Islands we have been getting requests for the past two-and-a-half years to bring some kind of kiosk, or some kind of system, where people can get their money or they can send their money. We've been doing our research and a bit of analytics to ensure that we get the best possible solution for the Family Islands, but it depends on which Family Island or settlement you are in. You might need different solutions.”

Sun Cash is operating a pilot kiosk programme in North Andros, where it has teamed with a local partner who will be responsible for manning the kiosk and ensuring it is kept working for clients. “The word is getting out with regard to the services we are delivering and, as the solution is there, more and more people are coming to the location to be able to utilise the service because what we did is we put a kiosk there," Mr Smith added.

"We partnered with somebody who has their navel string buried in North Andros, and who wanted to help solve the problem in the community. We may have had different strategies for how we wanted to market the kiosks, but we decided to partner with someone from the community who knows what the people on the island want and can deliver it for them.”

Clients can move funds from their bank accounts to their Sun Cash account after having their Know Your Customer (KYC) profile approved for second-tier status, which allows them to deposit greater sums. Payment recipients can also sign up for a Sun Cash account and are able to withdraw their funds, whether it is money for salaries or to pay vendors for work rendered.

“This is the same when you go to a commercial bank. When you open an account, they ask you what services do you want with the account,” Mr Smith said. “We are rolling out solutions that are going to solve problems that they currently have; not just put something there that may look nice, but put something there that’s going to solve problems that they are having.”

Sun Cash is presently doing its “due diligence” on other Family Islands to find suitable partners for its fast-pay kiosks. “The same thing we did in Andros with our two partners in North Andros and Central Andros, it’s just a matter of our vetting process to be able to get the right partners on this island," Mr Smith added.

"Once we pass the vetting process, they will be in a position to service their community the same way in Andros because they are our franchise partners. We’re prepared to roll our kiosks out. We are prepared to roll all of them out. But if we drop a kiosk in every island, that means we will end up running it and we don’t want that. So we just want the completion of the due diligence of the partner so we can find whoever is best, and hopefully that will happen soon.”