The Ministry of Home Affairs in partnership with GTT’s Mobile Money Guyana (MMG), launched its mobile payment services for the General Register Office (GRO) and Immigration Support Services, on Wednesday in the ministry’s compound, Brickdam.
Citizens will now be able to make payments through MMG when applying for birth, death and marriage certificates from GRO.
In addition, the MMG payment options will be available for applications for visa extensions, work permits and other services provided by Immigration Support Services.
During the launch, Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn said since taking office, the government was attuned to the need for efficient online services.
“I am pleased that we are finally at this point, when we took office originally the first few things, we thought of was to provide more efficient, efficacious services to the public by putting more things online because we recognise that people were taking a lot of time and a great deal of effort, especially those who come from far off places in Guyana, you know how large our country is…to get basic things done”.
This forms part of the government’s plan to transition Guyana to a digital economy. Online payment services will make doing business hassle-free and reduce the need for citizens to carry around numerous documents and large sums of money.
The minister said it is the government’s priority to go beyond this launch, so that citizens can have better access to services.
“We hope, [and] intend [to go] beyond the services being provided through the GRO and Immigration Services, there are other services within the ministry [that] would require payments and of course, the best way now is through an online portal, through MMG,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, General Manager of MMG, Babita Ram dubbed the event historic for the country and its citizens.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs… has made doing business in Guyana easier by implementing a digital option for us to pay for services” she said.
Registrar general of GRO, Raymond Cummings also applauded the initiative.
“This is something that we have been looking forward to, simple because from around June this year we made facilities available that persons can apply online. The problem was that there was no way for them to pay, so what this has done is enable persons [to] … save time and man hours… [and] you can apply online, you can use your MMG account [and] you can pay to have the certificates delivered and we will have it posted to you,” Cummings said.
Persons submitting applications for the various transactions will be able to do so from the comfort of their homes or wherever there is access to an electronic device.
Another form of this service has already been rolled out through the ministry with the Guyana Police Force taking the lead – new drivers writing the driver’s examination, can now apply online to sit the examination and have the study package mailed to them.