E-kyash is the Way to Go!!

E-kyash made its grand debut in August of last year. Since then, the Belize Bank Limited has held various activities to promote the use of its digital platform as an alternative to cash transactions. Tonight, we look at a pair of businesses, one that has been established for several years and another that just opened its doors to the public earlier this year.  Both businesses are benefiting significantly from the mobile application. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Since launching its platform for electronic cash transfers and mobile payments in August 2021, the Belize Bank’s cash app, E-kyash, has been catching on with businesses and their customers across the country. In Belize City, a number of stores, including Bleu by Einar Marin, made the transition very early to include E-kyash as part of their payment methods.

Einar Marin

Einar Marin, Proprietor, Bleu by Einar Marin

“Bleu by Einar Marin has been operating from January of this year. Last year we tried to start off in December but due to COVID we had to stop, but luckily this year we’ve had a good amount of interest from the Belizean public and their support. What we have here at Bleu by Einar Marin are daily breads such as croissants, doughnuts, our brioche breads, our colaches. We have individual cakes which are little bit different, they are European style mousse cakes that we brought here to, I’d say a third world country, you know, so that people don’t have to travel all the way to Europe, to the States to enjoy something that is on an international level.”

Elisia Chan has been employed at Celebrity Restaurant and Bar for the past seven years. She began here as a bartender and has worked her way up to supervisor.  With the introduction of E-kyash, the ease of doing business has alleviated a lot of the bottleneck inside the eatery.

Elisia Chan

Elisia Chan, Supervisor, Celebrity Restaurant & Bar

“It has been much easier with the new system, the E-kyash system. It makes payment very easy and we don’t have to worry about cash or dealing with credit cards anymore when it comes to customers picking up takeout food or dining in the restaurant. They come in and they see the E-kyash logo and they automatically say, “Am I able to pay with E-kyash?” and we let them know, yes, they can pay with E-kyash. We give them the Q.R. code and they scan and the payment comes through to us and that’s it.”

Over on Bachelor’s Avenue, it is the same system being used by Einar Marin and his employees.

Einar Marin

“E-kyash is from the Belize Bank. It’s a very good service to me, I think it’s safe, it’s reliable, it’s easy to operate. My whole staff knows about it and what I like about it is that we don’t have to scurry for small change, you know, the shillings, the dollar coins, the two dollars. Everything is easily operated by the system and it balances, so I don’t have to go looking where this extra dollar is coming from or where there’s a shortage.  Everything is easily managed by the platform.”

While there are walk-in customers who purchase with cash, a growing number uses this Android-based electronic method.

Einar Marin

“Well people, sometimes they don’t have cash, you know. Like mothers, they are just leaving their kids at school and they come here and want a cup of coffee or want a bread but they don’t have small change, you know. They just have their phone. I think everybody, now in this generation, has a phone, regardless of what kind of phone it is.  They can download the app and they can simply come here, scan the Q.R. code and the payment is, in seconds we have the payment.”

Isani Cayetano for News Five.