…WiPay launches E-commerce system in Guyana

WiPay, an e-commerce payment system that will allow Guyanese businesses to accept payments online, was officially launched on Thursday at the Pegasus Hotel’s Savannah Suite, where founder of the system, Aldwyn Wayne, noted the system will revolutionise the way payment is done in Guyana.

The system will open the door for more businesses to be encouraged to make online payment an option to their customers. WiPay noted that the drive for businesses in Guyana to get on board with accepting payment online has been slow, due in part to the difficulties encountered by businesses in setting up an efficient payment portal for customers to pay online. This is leaving the country behind as the rest of the world advances more and more towards e-commerce.

“In every developed country, payments are made using online or electronic method. The Caribbean is still behind where we are still very cash-heavy or cash-based; so now is the perfect time to join that e-commerce revolution. Perfect time for the Caribbean to be a part of that e-market,” noted Aldwyn Wayne, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WiPay.

“Taking your business online in Guyana has been a difficult, technical and costly process. Due to credit card penetration being as low as 10 per cent, the drive to go online in Guyana has been slow. Now is the time that Guyana can take part in the worldwide trade of e-commerce,” Wayne said

Wayne, a Trinidadian, previously headed ColdWater, a business that specialized in setting up individual payment portals for businesses wishing to allow their customers the option to make payments online.

However, this process was time-consuming, taking an average of two months, and required much ground work with each company. Wayne then started thinking of ways to make the process easier. Out of that though WiPay was born some three years ago. Now, instead of waiting for a payment portal to be set up on their website, companies can download the WiPay plug-in and install the WiPay payment button on their website. Best of all, the service is free for the companies.

“WiPay’s new online payment gateway offers a world-class payment solution for Guyanese businesses who want to sell their products and services online, and getting started is free, quick, easy and secure,” Wayne related.

WiPay will work in similar fashion to other payment systems such as PayPal, but is somewhat more versatile because it offers more means by which Guyanese consumers will be able to make payments when using the system. Consumers can make payments to businesses with or without a credit or debit card, and even with or without a bank account. Aside from facilitating the use of a credit/debit card, WiPay also allows for customers to also set up a WiPay account and pay via an online wallet, or to pay through the use of a WiPay top up voucher system.

With the top up system, customers do not need either a credit/debit card or a bank account. They load cash directly to a voucher, and the voucher can then be used in the same way that one would use a debit/credit card.
WiPay has partnered with Grace Kennedy to have the top up vouchers retailed at Bill Express locations across the country. When a consumers goes to a business’s website and chooses to pay via the WiPay option, they will be sent an invoice to their email inbox, whereby they can pay the WiPay-generated invoice using either their debit/credit card or a WiPay voucher using their 12 character voucher number.

With the WiPay account, consumers can load the account with money from a purchased voucher, from a debit/credit card, or directly from a customer’s bank account. Money from the WiPay account is then used to make payments.

Aside from offices in Trinidad where the company has its origins, and now Guyana, WiPay is also established in Barbados, St Lucia and Jamaica.

Telecommunications adviser, Andre Griffith, gave the initiative the blessing of the Ministry of Telecommunications. “Anything that works to enhance financial transactions is welcomed by government. We also appreciate anything that reduces the flow of cash walking around on the street,” he noted.