MUMBAI, India, Sept. 27, 2024 — **NPCI International Payments Limited** (NIPL) has announced a strategic partnership with the **Ministry of Digital Transformation** (MDT) of Trinidad and Tobago to create a real-time payments platform modeled after India’s highly successful **Unified Payments Interface** (UPI). This landmark collaboration makes Trinidad and Tobago the first nation in the Caribbean to adopt the widely recognized UPI, reinforcing the robust bilateral relationship between the two countries.
The partnership is designed to empower Trinidad and Tobago in developing a reliable and efficient payments platform for both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. This initiative aims to expand digital payments and enhance financial inclusion across the nation. By leveraging India’s UPI technology, Trinidad and Tobago plans to modernize its financial ecosystem, improving accessibility and connectivity with local and international payment networks while ensuring interoperability.
UPI has significantly transformed India’s financial sector, achieving nearly 15 billion transactions in August 2024, valued at an estimated USD 245 billion. As part of its mission, NIPL is committed to promoting India’s digital public goods worldwide through strategic collaborations with foreign central banks and governments.
In a statement, the CEO of NPCI International emphasized, “Trinidad and Tobago is making remarkable progress in enhancing its financial infrastructure, and we are honored to assist in building a secure, sovereign, and scalable payments platform. Our experience with UPI in India illustrates the transformative power of real-time payments in driving economic progress, bolstering access to essential financial services, and diminishing cash dependence. We eagerly anticipate working alongside the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.”
A representative from the Ministry of Digital Transformation remarked, “We are enthusiastic about partnering with NIPL to implement a digital payment system for Trinidad and Tobago. Inspired by India’s UPI, this new digital payment platform will stimulate innovation in the Fintech space, enhance the resilience of our current payment infrastructure, and improve security by reducing cash transactions. Furthermore, successful implementation will support financial inclusion for our unbanked population. We express our gratitude to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago for their continued support in this crucial initiative and look forward to transforming our payments landscape into a modern digital ecosystem.”
