KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Malaysians who have received RM100 e-cash via eMADANI have expressed their gratefulness and relief, and started using the aid for various purposes.
Seven million people applied for the cash aid on the first day the eMADANI facility was opened yesterday, and it allows recipients to make physical transactions at 1.8 million retailers or businesses via selected e-wallets or DuitNow QR code, namely MAE, Setel, ShopeePay and Touch ‘n Go.
In PERLIS, a restaurant worker in Kangar, Nur Fatin Syamimi Hasmadi, 21, said she checked the status of her application at 8 am today and found that she had received RM100 in e-credit.
“I was so happy and excited to see that RM100 (e-cash) has been credited. I have been planning to use the e-credit for buying food. Alhamdulillah, it was credited today,” she told Bernama today.
In SELANGOR, a fried chicken seller at the Seksyen 7 Hawkers Site in Shah Alam, Juhaizie Juhar, 32, said the granting of the e-cash aid would have a direct impact on small traders like him because recipients would definitely spend the money.
Juhaizie, who has been trading there for eight years, said he had already redeemed the RM100 credit and used it to fill petrol for his car.
Private sector worker Afiq Razali said the practice of using e-wallet platforms for extending the eMADANI incentive should be extended to the provision of other forms of government cash aid.
“These e-cash companies will indirectly become more competitive in making offers to the public to use their applications and this gives consumers an advantage in choosing applications,” he said.
In TERENGGANU, a supermarket worker in Kuala Nerus, Mahani Muda, 25, said people started using the e-MADANI cash for making payments today, with most buying necessities like rice, eggs, oil and sugar.
A food outlet operator, Azizah Awang, 48, said the government should extend the use of e-MADANI to small eateries to help petty traders as they are among those badly affected by the unstable economy and rising food prices.
In MELAKA, Restoran Serambi Emak assistant manager Alif Anaqi Ahmad Zaim, 19, said making cashless payments via QR Code was popular now with more than 50 per cent of his customers using the facility.
He said the government’s initiative to transfer the cash aid into e-wallets would boost the business of traders as many people are now making cashless payments.
