Bank Indonesia Launches Digital Village Program

Yesterday (20/4) Bank Indonesia collaborated with the central, regional and village governments in initiating the Digital Village program. The purpose of this program is to support the optimal use of village funds in order to encourage the development of villages and disadvantaged areas. There will be five district level locations that will become pilot project programs, namely Cirebon, Mentawai, Gunung Kidul, East Lombok, and Raja Ampat.

The Digital Village Program from Bank Indonesia (BI) is actually part of the implementation of the National Non-Cash Movement (GNNT) and financial inclusion through Digital Financial Services (LKD). BI wants through this program that village funds can be used optimally to encourage the development of villages and disadvantaged areas, especially in facilitating access to financial services.

Quoted from BI news"In the Digital Village program, Bank Indonesia plays a role in facilitating the availability of Digital Financial Services (LKD) agents to facilitate payment transactions in the use of village funds, training Training of Trainers, as well as education on the use of LKD and non-cash transactions in the Village.”

The initiation of the Digital Village program itself is planned to be implemented in five district level locations, namely Cirebon, Mentawai, Gunung Kidul, East Lombok, and Raja Ampat. As kick-off, Sindangjawa Village, Cirebon Regency, West Java was chosen to be the village pilot project The first was last Wednesday.

In addition to the support of the local government, BI also received support from Telkomsel. Role Telkomsel here is to help facilitate the availability of a stable network for the use of the EDC machine in cashless transactions later.

For village officials, this program is expected to provide convenience in terms of cost and time as well as improve security and transaction processing of village fund withdrawals through tiered authentication of fund withdrawals whose transaction traces can be recorded.

For rural communities, the Digital Village program is expected to open up opportunities to connect with financial services in meeting their daily transaction needs. BI hopes that by getting used to using non-cash services, an increase in financial inclusion can be achieved.