By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Central Bank executives yesterday forecast that 50 percent of Bahamians will have active Sand Dollar accounts by year-end 2024, with 160,000 already using this nation’s digital currency version.

Brett Lashley, the regulator’s deputy manager for customer experience, told the D3 digital assets conference that more than 35 percent of the Bahamian adult population currently uses the Central Bank-backed digital currency (CBDC).

He said: “We’ve already past 35 percent of the adult population. We have a relatively small population of just about 400,000 people so, you know, having 150,000 to 160,000 wallets already activated shows that we’re well on our way. By next year, I would say that we’ve targeted to get a little close to that 50 percent mark where we can say every other person is using Sand Dollar.”

Mr Lashley explained that the Central Bank has seen a “gradual uptick” in the amount of Sand Dollar customers, and there are now more than 150,000 consumer and 1,600 merchant digital wallets. He affirmed that the Sand Dollar provides a cash alternative to unbanked or under-banked islands and areas in The Bahamas.

“To-date, we have seen a gradual uptick in the adoption of Sand Dollar both from the consumer side - where we have over 150,000 wallets activated - and for the merchant side, where we have over 1,600 merchants throughout the archipelago accepting Sand Dollar as a method of payment,” Mr Lashley said.

“It’s key benefit really is for those communities that are lacking access to banks, the unbanked or the under-banked, providing them with a means other than cash to transact.”

Shaqueno Porter, the Central Bank’s deputy manager for financial market infrastructure, forecast that up to 75 percent of Bahamians will have active Sand Dollar accounts by 2025 with participation from commercial banks.

Given that the commercial banking industry already has an established infrastructure and consumer base, partnering with it could see Sand Dollar adoption “explode”. He said: “I think once we get all the banks involved, the Government’s involved, I think it would get 60 percent to 75 percent by 2025.

“The commercial banks.. this is a key to any successful CBDC. The commercial banks already have an existing customer base, and integration with the commercial banks can see adoption explode.” Mr Porter added that the Central Bank will engage with commercial banks next year to see how they can integrate Sand Dollar with their systems.

“So, we actually have an engagement strategy in 2024 to engage with the local banks here in The Bahamas,” he added, “to get them on board and to see how we can integrate the Sand Dollar with their internal systems and try to truncate some of the processes with issuing a CBDC.”

“They already have their existing networks and their existing infrastructures, so we are working with them to integrate the Sand Dollar into their internal systems.”

Mr Porter said the Sand Dollar lowers transaction costs for merchants and promotes financial inclusion by providing a digital banking service to under-banked communities.

He added: “The Sand Dollar offers real time settlement for transactions. And, because of this, we can reduce the need for intermediaries between the consumer and the merchant which, in turn, lowers the transaction costs for merchants.

“In terms of financial inclusion, we expect that in the near future the Sand Dollar will be an ubiquitous form of digital money that does not require traditional banking services. This will help us to reach the under-served communities, where we see unbanked and under-banked individuals, and we can include them in basic financial services.”