Antique Federation of Cooperatives supports NATCCO's N-Cash
San Jose, Antique -- The Antique Federation of Cooperatives (AFCCUI) supports the National Cash Card Program (N-Cash) of the National Confederation of Cooperatives where Overseas Filipino Workers can remit dollars to their families at a much lower dollar remittance fee, said Paz O. Pido.
"Aside from lower remittance fee, partner cooperatives are accessible in all towns in the province, the families of OFW don't need to go the banks or money transfer counter. We have existing mechanism to accommodate N-Cash program, in fact some of our primary cooperatives have linked with money transfer entities to serve their members who have OFW relatives in similar mechanism", Pido added.
N-Cash is a card system which can be used for a "Card to Card Remittance", prepaid cell phone loading and bills payment. Through NATCCO's existing internet facilities, cardholders could remit money to their families in the Philippines by only sending a text message. The maximum amount that can be remitted through the N-Cash is $2,000.
NATCCO's N-Cash Program, which is undertaken in coordination with the government-owned Development Bank of the Philippines and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri was launched recently at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati.
According to Senator Zubiri, the remittance of OFWs are key contributor to the economy and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas record showed that last year, Filipino workers sent $12.8 billion to their families in the Philippines. However, it cost the OFWs $1.7 billion in transaction fees to bring in the $ 12.8 billion based on the current prevailing 13.5 percent remittance fee. N-Cash program will reduce the cost of dollar remittance from the current cost of $27 per transaction to just $1 per transaction.
NATCCO as an umbrella organization of AFCCUI has a cooperation agreement with the iPay solutions, which will be its technology partner for the implementation of N-Cash program. The agreement allows the NATCCO to use the payment platform developed by iPay to offer its member cooperatives and individuals basic financial services that are more easy and convenient to use.
(PIA)