The RM300 million eBelia programme, one of the initiatives announced by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) under Budget 2021, will be offered through four e-wallet service providers namely BigPay, Boost, ShopeePay and TNG eWallet. The list had surprisingly excluded GrabPay.
The previous programmes named ePenjana and eTunai similarly offered cash disbursements via e-wallets selected Boost, TNG eWallet and GrabPay for the job.
The four e-wallets have a combined active user base of 30 million and a network of more than 1 million merchants, both online and offline.
Two million eligible Malaysian youths can claim RM150 in the form of e-wallet credit from one of the participating e-wallets.
This will be topped up with additional incentives in the form of cash back, vouchers, reward points or coins by the chosen e-wallet throughout the campaign period.
The claim period for the eBelia credit is from 1 June 2021 to 22 July 2021 and the credit can be spent until 31 July 2021. Eligible recipients are encouraged to update their e-wallet accounts or download the e-wallet apps before 1 June 2021.
The programme aims to help relieve their financial burden as well as promote cashless spending amongst Malaysian youths and full time Malaysian students at registered local institutions of higher learning.
Initially a total of RM200 million was allocated to provide RM100 e-wallet credit, however the government enhanced this initiative with an additional allocation of RM100 million under the PEMERKASA program announced last March, bringing the total allocation for eBelia to RM300 million.
The eBelia initiative is open to Malaysians aged 18 to 20 years old in 2021 (born in year 2001 to 2003), or are full-time students enrolled in courses equivalent to diploma or SKM4 and above at public and private registered institutions of higher learning.
MOF said that eligible youths’ data will be cross checked with registered IHLs and other relevant government databases.
eBelia is a collaboration between the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Human Resources as well as the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia.
Update 21st May 2021:
Industry sources revealed Grab’s exclusion wasn’t due to the Malaysian government not shortlisting the company, instead, we were informed that the timeline for execution wasn’t ideal for Grab and they opted to prioritise other activities
In a statement sent to Fintech News Malaysia, Priyanka Madan, Head of GrabPay Malaysia, said that the company is “encouraged by the government’s effort to drive cashless adoption” and that they are “aligned with the national agenda to encourage the adoption of the digital economy and digital payment”
They further highlighted recent initiatives towards furthering that goal which include; expanding their merchants base, improving safety and security feature, and new services like PayLater
Featured image credit: Edited from Photo by Zukiman Mohamad from Pexels
