NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Digital payment solutions provider, Kanoo, yesterday defended its record and award of government contracts, insisting that it “welcomes and embraces the government’s procurement process [and] the record would reflect that we abide by them”.
Kanoo is a digital wallet that allows customers to send and receive money anywhere throughout the nation, using cellphones and authorized agents to load or withdraw cash.
The first also collect funds on behalf of the government via the health travel visa initiative and holds them in a Bank of The Bahamas account.
Responding to questions from Eyewitness News, Kanoo Communications Manager Scieska Adderley said the company was contacted by a software and platform provider to provide payment services for the payment travel visa program five days before the platform was slated to come online.
She said this was to allow “seamless processing” of travel visa payments.
“Kanoo condensed two weeks of work into a four-day period to avoid any national embarrassment of the platform not being ready,” she said.
“The Bahamian government is the sole owner of the funds collected from The Bahamas health travel visa program, which the government uses to settle various expenses.
“All non-bank payment service providers are required to have a custodian account with a commercial bank licensed by the Central bank of The Bahamas.
“Kanoo chose to partner with the Bank of The Bahamas to provide the required bank account to process its merchant and e-commerce service.
“In order to provide this service to the government merchant, processing fees are paid to the commercial bank and to a payment gateway service.
According to Adderley, Kanoo received a “nominal processing fee” for the service.
She said the arrangement was not dissimilar from existing services provided to the government other non-bank payment service providers.
Kanoo is one of several organizations approved by the Central bank of The Bahamas to provide Sand Dollar services through its app.
There have been concerns in some quarters that the Minnis administration has favored the company due to political ties and other competitors for the government’s DigiPay platform were squeezed out without an ability to bid.
“Kanoo welcomes and embraces the government’s procurement processes,” Adderley said.
“The record would reflect that we abide by them.
“The record would also reflect that other services providers are collecting funding from other government agencies with significant transaction flows
“Most recently, we along with two other services providers, signed agreements to enhance, benefit social services distribution for the country.”
This month, the company has included social assistance payments into its offering with over 3,000 beneficiaries, allowing individuals to use a portion of their assistance in various locations.
In December, the government signed a three-year contract with Kanoo Pays to implement an e-payment system within the family courts at a cost of $25,000 annually for two of the three years.
At the time, Kanoo Pays CEO Keith Davies said the fees would range between $1 and $2.5 excluding value-added tax for “making and withdrawing cash payments.
