Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day launched the Na­tion­al Pay­ment and In­no­va­tion Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go, promis­ing that the new com­pa­ny marked an his­toric step in its jour­ney to­ward mod­ern, peo­ple-cen­tred gov­er­nance.

The new state-owned en­ter­prise has been cre­at­ed to mod­ernise, stream­line and se­cure the col­lec­tion and dis­burse­ment of all gov­ern­ment pay­ments, plac­ing ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, trans­paren­cy and ef­fi­cien­cy at the heart of pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery, the com­pa­ny said in a news re­lease.

The com­pa­ny said that with a mis­sion to reach every cit­i­zen, in every com­mu­ni­ty, for every gov­ern­ment trans­ac­tion, it would be­come the uni­fied gate­way for all pub­lic-sec­tor fi­nan­cial in­ter­ac­tions. From pay­ing tax­es and re­new­ing li­cences to col­lect­ing pen­sions or so­cial grants, in­di­vid­u­als can now com­plete these trans­ac­tions with ease — on­line or in per­son — at over 1,000 au­tho­rised lo­ca­tions na­tion­wide, in­clud­ing Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board out­lets and oth­er trust­ed part­ner points

“This is about trans­form­ing the cit­i­zen ex­pe­ri­ence,” said Kennedy Swarats­ingh, Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment, who cham­pi­oned the launch.

“We are tak­ing ser­vices that for years were com­pli­cat­ed, time-con­sum­ing and of­ten frus­trat­ing, and we are mak­ing them sim­ple, fast and se­cure. Every cit­i­zen, re­gard­less of where they live or how they choose to pay, will have ac­cess to the same high stan­dard of ser­vice. This is a leap for­ward in con­ve­nience, trans­paren­cy and pub­lic trust.”

The com­pa­ny will han­dle all pub­lic sec­tor fi­nan­cial trans­ac­tions — from col­lec­tions such as tax­es, du­ties, fees and fines, to dis­burse­ments in­clud­ing pen­sions, grants and wel­fare pay­ments.

With mul­ti­ple pay­ment chan­nels avail­able — cash, GOV­pay vouch­ers, card, bank trans­fers and dig­i­tal wal­lets, as well as same-day pro­cess­ing for dis­burse­ments, the sys­tem is de­signed to meet the needs of both the banked and un­banked, ac­cord­ing to the com­pa­ny.

For cit­i­zens, the ben­e­fits are im­me­di­ate:

• Con­ve­nience: Avoid long lines and mul­ti­ple trips to gov­ern­ment of­fices.

• Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty: Ac­cess pay­ment ser­vices close to home, even in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties.

• Trans­paren­cy: Re­ceive re­ceipts and con­fir­ma­tions in re­al time.

• Se­cu­ri­ty: Bank-grade pro­tec­tions for every trans­ac­tion.

For gov­ern­ment agen­cies, the com­pa­ny will de­liv­er faster col­lec­tions, bet­ter cash flow and re­duced ad­min­is­tra­tive bur­dens. Re­al-time trans­ac­tion track­ing and au­to­mat­ed rec­on­cil­i­a­tion will im­prove fi­nan­cial ac­cu­ra­cy, while in­te­grat­ed re­port­ing will give min­istries bet­ter in­sight for pol­i­cy and plan­ning.

The com­pa­ny’s suc­cess rests on strong part­ner­ships with the Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board, which pro­vides its ex­ten­sive re­tail net­work as pay­ment and pay­out points; com­mer­cial banks, which man­age trea­sury and set­tle­ment op­er­a­tions; and tech­nol­o­gy providers, which en­sure the plat­form’s re­li­a­bil­i­ty, se­cu­ri­ty and scal­a­bil­i­ty.

“As the NL­CB, we are proud to ex­tend our role in serv­ing com­mu­ni­ties by mak­ing gov­ern­ment ser­vices avail­able at neigh­bour­hood pay­ment points,” said chair­man of the Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board Ken Em­rith.

The launch, held at Tow­er D, In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre in Port of Spain, brought to­geth­er gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, busi­ness lead­ers and mem­bers of the pub­lic to wit­ness demon­stra­tions of the new sys­tem in ac­tion. The event un­der­scored the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to build­ing not just a pay­ment net­work, but a stronger con­nec­tion be­tween cit­i­zens and the state.