$130mil CDC Vouchers Scheme: Onboarding begins for Heartland Merchants & Hawkers

The five Community Development Councils (CDCs) are pleased to announce that the CDC Vouchers Scheme will be rolled out over the next few months beginning first with the recruitment and onboarding of heartland merchants and hawkers. Heartland merchants and hawkers are invited to participate in the CDC Vouchers Scheme from Monday, 18 October 2021, onwards.

This $130 million CDC Vouchers Scheme announced at Budget 2021 earlier this year are: (a) to thank all 1.3 million Singaporean Households for their spirit of resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic; and (b) to continue to support the heartland merchants and hawkers in their businesses.

This island-wide Scheme is supported by the government ministry and agencies [Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) / SG Digital Office (SDO), Enterprise Singapore (ESG), Government Technology Agency (Govtech) / Open Government Products (OGP), the Ministry of Finance (MOF)], as well as by the People’s Association (PA) Grassroots Organisations, Federation of Merchants’ Association Singapore (FMAS), Heartland Enterprise Centre Singapore (HECS), the SME Centres, and Merchants’ / Hawkers’ Associations.

The CDC Vouchers Scheme to be launched in a few months’ time will take a digital form. Over the next few months, CDC Vouchers Ambassadors from the CDCs and SG Digital Office (SDO) will be walking the ground to invite and guide heartland merchants and hawkers to download and use the RedeemSG Merchant app. The app will allow heartland merchants and hawkers to easily accept Government issued digital vouchers. The app will allow heartland merchants and hawkers to easily accept Government issued digital vouchers and track voucher transactions. This is also in response to suggestions from merchants and hawkers for faster payouts, and to reduce the need for them to collect, count and hand over paper vouchers.

Heartland merchants and hawkers can also go online at vouchers.cdc.gov.sg/merchants/info to register their interest, and a CDC Vouchers Ambassador will reach out to them in the next two weeks.

To ensure merchants and hawkers can be onboard smoothly, CDC Vouchers Ambassadors will guide them through the process and how to use the RedeemSG Merchant app. In addition, how-to videos as well as infographics will be made available. When the CDC Vouchers Scheme is launched officially in a few months’ time, help will also be at hand to guide residents on how to claim their vouchers, with step by step videos and infographics.

Quotes

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Second Minister for Law, and PA Deputy Chairman Mr Edwin Tong said, “In the face of adversity brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Singaporeans have banded as a nation and grown stronger together. We appreciate everyone playing their part. Inspired by Singaporeans’ indomitable spirit, the five Community Development Councils and the People’s Association will soon be rolling out the next tranche of the CDC Vouchers Scheme as a way to show appreciation to Singaporeans for their sense of solidarity as we navigate through the challenges. We are starting with merchant onboarding for now, and hope that the scheme can help support businesses of our heartland merchants.”

Ms Low Yen Ling, Chairman, Mayors’ Committee and Mayor of South West District, said, “For the past year, the CDCs have worked closely with heartland merchants and hawkers to help these local businesses tide over the Covid-19 pandemic. With their feedback, we’ve improved the CDC Vouchers Scheme by creating a solution for easy customer redemptions and faster payouts to heartland merchants and hawkers. The new RedeemSG Merchant app lets sellers track transactions easily and frees them from the hassle of collecting and counting paper vouchers. We hope heartland merchants and hawkers will take this chance to get on board this free scheme which will not only help widen their customer base, but also provide a guided initiation to the use of digital platforms for their long-term growth and future. We look forward to their strong participation in this scheme which also aims to strengthen our community resilience.”

Ms Low added that since end August this year, more than 5,000 enterprises have adopted digital solutions under the Heartlands Go Digital initiative, and three in four HDB shops presently offer e-payment options to customers.