The Impact Of The Pandemic, People In Remote Areas Are 'Forced' To Be Part Of The 21 Million New Users Of Digital Transactions

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia recorded the number of new consumers using digital transactions soared to reach 21 million in 2022. One of the drivers is the COVID-19 pandemic in the last three years which has forced people to reduce mobility.

Bank Indonesia Payment System Policy Director Fitria Irmi Triswati said the pandemic had encouraged people to become digitally literate, resulting in rapid growth in the last two years.

“More astonishingly, 72 percent of the new customers are outside big cities. This means that residents in remote areas are currently also 'forced' to be digitally literate," Fitria said at the Digitization Talk event held by the BI Representative Office in South Sumatra, quoted by Antara, Thursday, June 9.

He said that in the midst of limited infrastructure in remote areas, borders and remote areas, it turned out not to be a barrier to the development of digital transactions. Residents seem to keep looking for ways to access this digital service.

The existence of products such as digital banks to officeless bank services also encourages the penetration of this digital transaction in the community.

BI and other regulators such as the Financial Services Authority (OJK), the Deposit Insurance Corporation and related Ministries/Institutions continue to encourage digitalization to continue to infiltrate the community because it is believed to be safer and more efficient.

"This means that regulators are overseeing here through regulations and supervision so that digital transactions are indeed profitable for the community, or become solutions to problems that have existed so far," he said.