Garth Rattray | Our cashless society is a futuristic dream

There have been mumblings and rumblings about Jamaica eventually becoming a cashless society. This is not about cryptocurrency (which is a virtual currency). This is about conducting financial transactions with digital information instead of paper or coins.

It sounds nice, clean, convenient, controllable, safe from violent robberies, and easily traceable. Of course, there have also been grumblings from worried citizens who extrapolate that ‘the government’ could utilise digital currency transactions to constantly track their finances, spending, and curtail, or even deny them the capability to purchase items as a means of controlling or punishing them.

In looking around before penning this piece, I came across a very good article by Nadine Barrett-Maitland, senior lecturer at the School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Technology. published in The Gleaner on July 24. Barrett-Maitland covered a very wide area of topics that hinder the acceptance of digital currency transactions, and I would like to speak to a few.

Standing out most is the sad story of one of my elderly patients. He once held a very high position in our government service. Despite his age, this gentleman was no mental slouch, but he just could not understand the digital systems that younger minds so easily grasp. He was told by his bank that he must use the ATM for his necessary transactions. He asked for help on several occasions but was literally led to the ATM each time. He was already burdened with the troubles that accompany ageing. He was lonely, frustrated, frightened, and the problem with the callous bank pushed him into full-blown clinical depression. He died in that state of mind.

Adult literacy rates are calculated using people 15 years and above. In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Country Profile of Jamaica estimated that “… more than 161,000 males and close to 74,000 females … lack basic reading and writing skills, making Jamaica’s adult literacy rate to be 88.1 per cent”. However, currently, Macrotrends estimates that of our 2,852,232 population, 88.67 per cent of our adult population can read and write. An indeterminate number of citizens can only recognise their name and draw their signature. Until we achieve literacy rates approximating 100 %, a cashless society will remain elusive.

DIFFICULT

The older we become, the more difficult it is to learn a new language. We are an ageing population and becoming familiar with digital transactions is akin to learning a new language. Our elderly, illiterate or barely literate, digital phobic, and technophobic citizens will need to be considered and gently ushered into this new, mysterious, and sometimes formidable world of digital transactions. Ostensibly, some, or perhaps even many, banks are not set up or prepared to do so … and that is going to be a significant barrier to becoming a cashless society.

My little medical office has been using a point of sale (POS) machine for many years. In the past, but more so recently, the POS devices have been malfunctioning through no fault of our own. Calls to the bank that has the account for the office since 1991 are fruitless. All that telephoning and waiting online and transferring and promises all come to naught. Writing letters and turning up in person only wastes time. I have had to take several POS devices into the bank, all to no avail. Although the business and I are long-time customers of that bank, and although the bank dutifully but unfairly consistently bills our account for the use of the useless POS, we are still denied access to, or conversation with, anybody who could help (including the department in charge of POS matters).

When it does not matter to a bank that its clients are frequently and repeatedly without the use of their POS machines for many months, as has been the case with our office, digital transactions are not possible. And when there is absolutely no recourse, and businesses are left to suffer the consequences and wait on the pleasure of said bank to eventually replace faulty POS devices, it indicates that the banking system and the Government are not serious about Jamaica becoming a cashless society.

FORBID

Some banking locations forbid clients wanting to do personal transactions from entering the building to carry them out. Those clients are told to use the ATMs. But the ATMs have the rather nasty habit of breaking down. And if the ATM is malfunctioning and the clients ask the security guards to allow them inside the bank (because transfers must be done to pay bills or withdrawals need to be made), they are barred and told to try the ATM another day.

Consequently, the ATMs can be rather busy. My wife and I have been inside an ATM enclosure when a blithering idiot began hammering his fist on the glass because he grew impatient with us! Aside from the concern that there may be a repeat of that horrible experience, there is always the worry that the ATM is rigged with some sort of fancy [disguised] electronic device to [digitally] steal our money.

Our very undependable Internet services and the unreliable digital platforms that the banks provide can lock you out or leave you wondering where you are stuck in the digital universe. We will not be able to move in the direction of a cashless society until we clean up our act.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.