By Ee Ann Nee
KUALA LUMPUR: SME Corp Malaysia is targeting for 100,000 SMEs to move into cashless transactions this year, from 7,000 now, through collaborations with industry players and its awareness programmes with SMEs.
Malaysia has about 1 million SMEs, of which 28.2% are now doing online business.
SME Corp Malaysia CEO Datuk Dr Hafsah Hashim said SMEs will benefit from going cashless as it will improve their operational efficiency, reduce administrative cost and ability to enjoy fast access to collection proceeds.
“We’re encouraging those offline to move into cashless transactions. In addition with our work with Axiata, we now have PayNet to help them move into this mode of cashless transactions. With our partnership with RHB Bank, we’ll bring this with us in our programmes to reach out to SMEs and persuade them to go cashless,” she told a press conference after signing a memorandum of understanding with RHB Bank Bhd today to drive SMEs towards a cashless society.
The collaboration includes RHB Bank appointing SME Corp as JomPay agent and offers SMEs the opportunity to adopt e-payment by leveraging on RHB Bank’s Reflex Online Cash Management System and other RHB Bank digital enablers.
PayNet or Payment Networks Malaysia Sdn Bhd, operates Malaysia’s national bill payment scheme JomPay. With JomPay, bank customers can pay any registered biller from internet, mobile banking or ATMs by drawing funds from current, savings or credit card accounts. Billers need to only sign up with one bank to collect payments via most banks in Malaysia.
RHB Bank offers SMEs a robust payment ecosystem that include Corporate MyDebit Card, JomPay, SME e-retail solutions including electronic point of sales, merchant card terminal, the Reflex Online Cash Management system, as well as the RHB SME Banking online portal. As at February 2018, RHB has 74,000 customers on the Reflex platform.
Hafsah said there are 7,000 SME merchants now using cashless transactions via its partnership with Axiata Digital Services Sdn Bhd’s e-wallet Boost.
RHB group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said it aims to grow its SME loan to 9.6% and raise its SME market share to 9.20% this year, from 8.8% and 9% respectively in 2017.
SME contributions to the RHB Banking Group totals 16.4% now and this figure is expected to grow at a rate of 10% this year. About 20% of the group’s loans is expected to be driven by SME financing by 2022.
