NPCI International to Establish Trinidad & Tobago’s UPI-Like Payments Platform

Nitin Konde, Apoorva Bajj

Sep 30, 2024 — 3 min read

NPCI International to Establish Trinidad & Tobago’s UPI-Like Payments Platform

To create a real-time payments platform for Trinidad and Tobago that is similar to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), NPCI International Payments (NIPL) and the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) have partnered strategically.

The first country in the Caribbean to use India's well-known instant payments network, UPI, is Trinidad and Tobago.

According to a press release from NIPL, the partnership will enable person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments in real time, thereby increasing digital payments in the nation and promoting financial inclusion.

The Service Will Bring More Transparency in the Region

This relationship will improve accessibility, affordability, connectivity with domestic and international payment networks in the future, and interoperability by utilising technology and experiences from India's UPI, according to the announcement.

Real-time payments may change economies by increasing access to necessary financial services and decreasing dependency on cash, as NPCI International's experience with UPI in India has shown.

Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NPCI International, stated, "We look forward to working closely with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Central Bank in Trinidad and Tobago."

Additionally, NIPL delegations made multiple trips to Trinidad and Tobago in order to further negotiations. This programme is in line with India's overarching goal of being the world leader in digital public infrastructure (DPI). In order to expedite DPI projects in underdeveloped countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the establishment of a Social Impact Fund and the Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR) during India's 2023 G20 Presidency.

Trinidad and Tobago is anticipated to reap several advantages from the implementation of UPI, such as reduced transaction expenses, enhanced tax adherence, and enhanced clarity in public assistance initiatives. Significant financial innovation and economic development in the nation may be facilitated by this relationship.

India’s UPI Success Is Now Travelling to Other Nations

As the leader of India's payments transformation, UPI is being introduced to other nations by the NPCI, the organisation that manages it, and the Indian central bank. Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, and France are among the nations that are either utilising the open source platform to develop their own immediate payment systems or connecting to the UPI framework to make it compatible with their own payment systems.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Finance are excited to begin this important collaboration with NIPL in order to establish a digital payment system for Trinidad and Tobago, according to a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Digital Transformation in Trinidad and Tobago.

Based on India's UPI, the digital payment platform will support Fintech innovation and improve the technical resilience of the existing payment infrastructure by offering a supplementary, non-competitive digital payments platform that reduces the need for cash and increases security.

"Furthermore, if implementation is effective, it will help our unbanked citizens become financially included. We would like to express our gratitude to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago for being a key participant and strategic partner in this significant project. We are excited to work together with NPCI International to aggressively change the current payments landscape and create a cutting-edge digital payments ecosystem," spokesperson added further.