Malaysia’s Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, announced a series of economic stimulus plans last week that is targetted at revitalising the economy which was weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 40 initiatives worth RM 35 Billion under this recovery plan that was dubbed as “PENJANA”. Under the same plan, the Malaysian government announced an allocation of RM 750 million that is aimed at driving the adoption of e-wallets in Malaysia.
RM 50 will be credited into e-wallet accounts of approximately 15 million Malaysians. According to the Prime Minister’s speech, the RM 50 will also be matched with vouchers, cashbacks, and discounts of RM 50 from e-wallet companies participating in this scheme.
Malaysian’s above the age of 18 and earning less than RM 100,000 per annum are eligible for this scheme which will begin July 2020. It was not mentioned during the speech which e-wallets will be participating in this initiative.
A similar initiative named e-Tunai was launched by the previous government in January 2020 which set aside RM 450 million to give eligible Malaysians a one-time RM 30 credit into their e-wallets. The previous e-Tunai programme was participated by 3 e-wallet brands namely; Boost, GrabPay and TNG Digital.
If history is any indication it is likely that these three players will be part of the governments new RM 750 million plan to drive cashless adoption. In total, both administrations have allocated RM 1.2 billion to promote the use of e-wallets in Malaysia.
