Jamaica-Based GraceKennedy Launches New ‘Game Changer’ Mobile Payment App

GraceKenney’s MPay will be available to use for a variety of merchants, including street vendors. (GraceKenney/The Gleaner)

The company got the green light for the remittance service from the central bank on Tuesday, Feb. 7, just ahead of its official launch of ‘MPay’ later that evening.

GraceKennedy Money Services says it eventually wants to expand its mobile money services beyond Jamaica to other Caribbean markets. GKMS operates in 11 regional markets.

“It’s a game changer, an absolute game changer,” said Michael McNaughton, vice-president for business development.

“As it turned out, we found that two separate departments were looking on the different sides of this product and the remittance aspect could not have come at a better time,” McNaughton said, regarding the approvals from the central bank.

GKMS said in its press release that it wants to use MPay “to help transform money movement via its new electronic platform, starting first in Jamaica.”

Contacted for clarification, Noel Greenland, Senior Vice-President for Marketing and Operations at GKMS, declined to be quoted regarding the timelines on when MPay’s footprint will touch other shores or even the locations to be prioritized, but he reaffirmed that the company would “explore the possibility of expanding our footprint in the future.”

To enter other markets as a mobile money provider, GKMS would likely need approvals in the various jurisdictions.

There are now three mobile money services in Jamaica — GK MPay, Quisk and Conec. GK MPay is the second to get approval but first to market with a remittance component of its mobile money service.