Launched in 2016 in Trinidad & Tobago, WiPay is an online payments platform that allows persons to sell their products and services online. Users can create a WiPay account at https://wipaytoday.com, and it allows businesses and persons to accept payments via credit cards, bank accounts, vouchers or in person.
With offices in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Guyana, the company is now expanding its footprint to Saint Lucia. On Thursday, the official launch was held at Harbor Club in Rodney Bay. WiPay CEO Aldwyn Wayne says the company was founded out of a need for financial inclusion for everyone. “If you look at the growing trend of business and commerce,” he said, “it’s all migrating to the online space.”
Another team member added: “We are bringing to Saint Lucia financial inclusion, the ability to allow e-commerce to explode, and we are bringing the ability for anyone to now export goods and services.” Also present at Thursday’s launch was Senator Dr. Ubaldus Raymond, who has responsibility for the public service. He spoke on the government’s intention to work with WiPay in the near future to improve the ease of doing business. Dr. Raymond offered a short story: “A man had a sick wife. The wife had recovered, and the first thing the wife said to the man was, ‘I will go to renew my driver’s license.’ The man’s response was, ‘Do you want to get sick again?’ The point I want to make here is that doing business in government can get you sick. If you want to get yourself stressed out, just go and try to renew your driver’s license, go ahead and try to get a birth certificate, or a passport. Just go to one of the government departments and you’ll prove me right.”
The senator said he wanted to keep citizens happy. And one way of doing this is to improve the ease of doing business at the various government departments. He looks forward to a time when people can carry out their transactions from their homes. In the meantime he wished to make it clear the government had not signed any agreements with WiPay. –
