Sabah launches state e-wallet 'Sabah Pay'

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (third left) holding the Sabah Pay leaflet during the digital application launching on Tuesday. With him is Sabah Credit Corporation chief executive officer George Taitim Tulas (fourth left).

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah now has its own state e-wallet, Sabah Pay, a centralised digital application which can be used by both locals and tourists.

Developed and managed by state government-owned statutory body Sabah Credit Corporation (SCC), it offers several features which included a centralised cash collection for the Sabah government.

SCC chief executive officer George Taitim Tulas said during the e-wallet launching on Tuesday (Feb 11), that besides the Collection Module for the payment of all government bills, there will be an Announcement Module to share news by government departments and agencies, and an Event Module for information on event happenings in Sabah.

There will also be segments for promotions on latest offers and deals by business/commercial entities, for reporting and highlighting incidents to the respective government agencies, and links to all government agencies’ web portals.

“As of today, there are 27 departments/agencies and 28 business and commercial entities participating in Sabah Pay.

“After the launching, we will continue to engage remaining departments and agencies with the aim of five per month beginning this month.

“We target that by year-end, 60% of the state departments and agencies' collection can be done through the Sabah Pay’s Collection Module, with an aim of 100,000 users signing up by then.

“This is just phase one, there will be more services introduced such as virtual account, e-Parking, e-Ticket (park entrance and transport) and smart loan, ” he said.

Asked how the application could benefit tourists, George said in future, tourists who enter parks and islands under Sabah Parks can pay cashless via Sabah Pay.

For the initiative, SCC has partnered with Boost as the e-wallet operator, Sunline International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd as the system developer and integrator, and Alibaba Cloud Malaysia Sdn Bhd as the cloud service provider.

Meanwhile, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal who launched the application, said Sabah is seen as a progressive state as this was the second cashless digital application being launched by a state in the country, the first being Sarawak.

“Not only do we expect to attract investors and businesses by simplifying our procedures and payments via online using just our handphones, but the aim is to reduce the burden of the public in terms of costs from having to travel to make payments or go to the bank, for example.

“This application will place Sabah at a competitive position and I encourage people to register now, ” said Shafie during the press conference.