KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — GrabPay Malaysia is teaming up with the government to boost cashless payment adoption among youths and businesses, particularly micro small and medium enterprises, through the RM300 million ePemula programme announced recently by the Finance Ministry.

Under the programme targeted to start in the middle of this month, some two million youths aged 18 to 20 and full-time students from higher learning institutions will receive a one-off RM150 credit voucher via their e-wallet of choice for in-store transactions.

In a statement today, GrabPay Malaysia head Priyanka Madan said since the launch of the GrabPay e-wallet, the company has cooperated with like-minded partners and government agencies to encourage the growth of cashless transactions to provide safer, more transparent and inclusive financial services nationwide.

She said the company has helped thousands of micro, small and medium-sized businesses to make that online transition and to accept cashless payments.

"As the country transitions to Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan, we hope businesses will be able to recoup their offline sales while still reaping the benefits of the digital economy,” she added.

The statement cited various studies to show the pandemic has accelerated e-wallet adoption across Malaysia, including one done by Tech for Good Institute that found 67 per cent of Malaysians have digital access through mobile phone subscriptions, with 83 per cent of them adopting digital payments using mobile e-wallets.

Meanwhile, according to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2021, 55 per cent of Malaysians said they can go on without physical cash for more than a week. The study attributed this to the growth of cashless payment options such as QR payments and e-wallets.

Bank Negara Malaysia’s recent report also showed that e-wallet transactions increased more than 70 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020. — Bernama