Scaling Responsible Digital Payments in the Indonesian Cocoa Sector Event - Resident Coordinator's (designate) Remarks

Selamat Siang,

Let me begin by thanking OJKA and the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs for their support to scale up digital payments for farmers in the coco sector in Indonesia.

I also want to thank UNCDF and Better Than Cash Alliance for generating the evidence base for scaling up digital payments with a focus on coco farmers from Sulawesi.

The launch of the report is a starting point for taking DT further, wider and deeper across the country.

I am new to the country, and this is my third week in Indonesia. Participating in seminars like this is a great learning opportunity for me.

I want to use my closing remarks today by share my three key take aways:

First, digital payments are pivotal to fast-track digital transformation, financial inclusion and inclusive growth in Indonesia and more specifically in the agriculture sector and the cocoa value chain.

We know that the digital economy currently contributes just over 5% of the GDP in Indonesia. Digital solutions like this are transformative as they are a great equalizer, generating income and deepening economic opportunities for all. 
Taking this process of digital transformation to farmers, who are among the largest and vulnerable segment of the population is a game changer.

It brings digital platforms, financial stakeholders, and economic actors, such as cocoa smallholders together in finding solutions for challenges.

For the UN this is a priority as engage to further the outreach of digitization.

The second takeaway is about efficiency gains that are brought to bear through digital platforms, in this case for the cocoa farmers and the value chain. Digital payments will unlock opportunities for coco farmers to scale up their sales, purchase seeds, fertilizers and other inputs leveraging digital platforms.

It also brings farmers into the formal financial space with access to affordable interest rates, which they can leverage to further secure their livelihoods.

Analysis tells us that digitization reaches every other Indonesian in the country. Expanding this network will secure big gains, by reaching the unbanked and the uninsured specifically targeting women.

The third takeaway for me is the realization that the momentum around the digital transformation is a global phenomenon. This is why the Secretary-General is prioritizing the Global Digital Compact at the Summit of the Future in September.

In conclusion, scaling up digital payments reflects the commitment of the GOI and their game-changing policy on digital transformation to leave no one behind. Bringing the private sector and financial markets to institutionalize digital mechanisms under the leadership of the government is a win-win for all of us.

The UN system stands alongside all stakeholders including the small holder cocoa farmers in support of digitization.  

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Download the speech, here.