From left: Carl Gordon, director of presidency and strategic progress, Mastercard English Caribbean; Dalton Fowles, nation supervisor for Jamaica, Mastercard; mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon; and Naudia Crosskill, chief govt officer, St James Municipal Company.
MASTERCARD Inc has partnered with St James Municipal Company to drive digital progress in Montego Bay, Jamaica’s tourism hub, the businesses mentioned on Tuesday.
The partnership goals to advertise digital transformation amongst small companies and the tourism sector in Montego Bay, positioning town as a mannequin for digital innovation within the Caribbean.
The settlement, formalised via a memorandum of understanding (MOU), focuses on two key areas: advancing digitalisation amongst small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and enhancing the tourism financial system via higher adoption of digital funds.
“MSMEs represent the spinal construction of our native financial system, subsequently to construct a extra sturdy financial spine to navigate the worldwide house now we have to empower them via the digitisation course of,” mentioned Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon. “What we’re doing with Mastercard in Montego Bay will set the tempo and normal for MSME growth and allow them to leverage alternatives within the ever-expanding tourism trade.”
Beneath the SME digitalisation pillar, Mastercard will collaborate with native stakeholders to supply companies with entry to digital fee techniques, contactless-enabled units, and monetary literacy coaching. These measures intention to assist SMEs combine into the digital financial system and develop their operations.
The tourism-focused initiatives will promote cashless transactions throughout key providers equivalent to lodges, transportation, and points of interest. Mastercard plans to introduce multilingual fee units able to processing transactions in guests’ house currencies as a part of a pilot programme launching in Q2 2025. The programme will initially equip 150 registered tourism distributors with these units.
Dalton Fowles, Mastercard’s nation supervisor for Jamaica, described the partnership as a “important step in direction of constructing a extra inclusive and affluent digital financial system”. He added: “By leveraging Mastercard’s expertise, sources, and experience, we intention to empower SMEs, improve the tourism sector, and drive financial progress for the advantage of all residents and guests.”
The initiative additionally features a workforce growth programme geared toward coaching hospitality employees in digital customer support protocols and cybersecurity greatest practices. Moreover, a shared knowledge platform will present metropolis planners with actual time insights into financial exercise, enabling extra focused infrastructure investments and enterprise assist programmes.
Montego Bay is one among Jamaica’s most outstanding vacationer locations, attracting over 2.3 million cruise passengers and 1.1 million in a single day guests yearly. Town is poised to grow to be a hub for contactless funds, permitting vacationers to seamlessly transition from airport transfers to native purchases utilizing cellular wallets or contactless playing cards.
As Jamaica’s digital fee quantity has grown by 217 per cent between 2020 and 2024, this partnership is seen as a essential step in accelerating monetary inclusion and financial restoration post-COVID-19. Critics have raised issues about client protections, nonetheless Mastercard has addressed these by implementing obligatory encryption requirements and establishing a 24/7 fraud assist hotline.
Implementation groups are set to start web site surveys subsequent week as Montego Bay positions itself as probably the Caribbean’s first totally digital municipality.
