NPCI To Build UPI-Like Payments Platform In Trinidad & Tobago

SUMMARY

NPCI International Payments Limited signs an agreement with Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) of Trinidad and Tobago to help build digital payment system

Trinidad and Tobago is the first Caribbean country to adopt India’s digital payment system UPI

The Caribbean country aims to develop a real-time payments platform for P2P and P2M transactions

National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) overseas arm NIPL has partnered with Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) to develop a real time payments platform akin to Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

This makes Trinidad and Tobago the first Caribbean nation to adopt UPI.

With this move, the Caribbean nation looks to develop a reliable real-time payments platform for both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions.

“Trinidad and Tobago is taking significant steps towards advancing its financial infrastructure, and we are proud to support them in building a secure, sovereign and scalable payments platform. Our experience with UPI in India has demonstrated how real-time payments can transform economies by improving access to essential financial services and reducing reliance on cash,” said Ritesh Shukla, CEO, NPCI International.

“Fashioned on India’s UPI, the digital payment platform will facilitate innovation in the fintech sector, enhance the technical resiliency of the current payment infrastructure by providing a complementary, non-competing digital payments platform with increased security through the reduced use of cash. Moreover, successful implementation will contribute to the financial inclusion of our unbanked citizens,” a Trinidad and Tobago’s MDT spokesperson said.

This comes at a time when India is in discussion with countries in Africa and South America to help them build a digital payment system along the lines of UPI. The initiatives in these countries are expected to take shape by early 2027.

India aims to explore interoperability and connectivity in the domestic and international payment networks with such tie-ups. For instance, NPCI has signed an MoU with Maldives’ economic development and trade ministry to roll out Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Launched in 2020, NIPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of NPCI to develop NPCI’s real-time payment system-UPI and card scheme (RuPay) outside of India.

Meanwhile, UPI has registered nearly 15 billion transactions till August 2024 with an estimated value of $245 Bn.