1,000 'digital ambassadors' to be recruited to help stallholders, seniors go online

SINGAPORE — Local stallholders and the elderly will be helped to join the online world by 1,000 digital ambassadors, the first project of a newly created body called the SG Digital Office (SDO), Information and Communications Minister S Iswaran said on Sunday (May 31).

To help encourage the adoption of e-payments by stallholders — at hawker centres, wet markets, coffee shops and industrial canteens — a bonus of S$300 per month over five months will be provided.

The money will come from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the National Environment Agency, Jurong Town Corporation, the Housing and Development Board and Enterprise Singapore.

That means a stallholder who satisfies the criteria could pocket S$1,500 over the five-month period under the incentive scheme.

“Covid-19 has irrevocably changed the way we lead our lives,” Mr Iswaran said, in a media statement issued jointly by the IMDA and the Ministry of Communication and Information (MCI).

“While some of us have been able to make the necessary adjustments to work, learn or socialise from our homes because we are digitally connected, that is not the case for some of the elderly and vulnerable amongst us,” he said.

“There are groups of seniors who are either not quite familiar (with this) or are a little anxious about the whole thing.” 

He added this would have led them to feeling disconnected from their loved ones, and prevented them from taking advantage of the benefits technology brings.

The new SDO will come under the IMDA, he also said.

“For a start, SDO will recruit 1,000 digital ambassadors to help stallholders and seniors go digital,” Mr Iswaran said, adding that they will be recruited and deployed by the end of June.

“Working with like-minded members of the community, corporate entities and individuals, SDO will drive Singapore’s national digitalisation movement, to ensure that everyone has a place in Singapore’s digital future.”

While priority will be given to graduates of Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore, Mr Iswaran said he expects that the ambassadors may even include seniors who have already made the digital transition and can better relate with their peers.

MCI and IMDA said that the ambassadors will comprise both full-time staff and volunteers. Their goal will be to “raise the digital skills” of 100,000 seniors by March next year.

This target is 10 times the previous annual target of 10,000 seniors set by Mr Iswaran last July when he announced a plan for 100 free Merdeka Generation digital clinics to supplement educational efforts that were already in place back then to help seniors go digital.

On Sunday, Mr Iswaran described previous initiatives to help seniors pick up digital skills as “roaming efforts” that were “not present at all times”.

“Now you're going to have teams of digital ambassadors embedded in the community, running this programme,” he said. “This is really a digitalisation movement that we are embarking on.”

Mr Iswaran said the ambassadors will teach the seniors how to safely make digital transactions, among other other things.

However, he stressed that seniors may still use cash for purchases if they wish.

“Obviously we can’t and we won’t (exclude payments by cash),” said Mr Iswaran. “What we are trying to do is migrate into the digital platform. And once they start doing that, they will find that there are (new) options open to them. And I think this is going to be a key part of the effort.”

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in the recent Fortitude Budget that seniors from lower-income households who wish to pick up digital skills but are unable to afford devices, will be provided with financial support.

The ambassadors will cover all 112 hawker centres and wet markets in June to encourage stallholders to adopt SGQR codes for e-payment.

This will be further expanded in July to include coffee shops and industrial canteens, according to the press release.

Both MCI and IMDA stated that the goal is to engage 18,000 stallholders to help them get onboard a unified e-payment solution by June 2021.

Mr Iswaran described this as almost “universal coverage” of all stallholders in Singapore.

He said the goal of the digital movement is to bring about a “quantum change in the way we adopt digitalisation” in our everyday lives.

“The Government recognises that in the wake of Covid-19, digitalisation is now both an imperative and an opportunity. Digitalisation can significantly improve the lives and livelihoods of our people."

While applications for digital ambassadors started last week, interested applicants are still encouraged to apply via this website.