This, Commerce Minister Emma Hippolyte says, is part of the ministry’s efforts to modernise the sector. Hippolyte encourages vendors to be receptive to the new devices.

“Our focus now is on digitisation. We are working with the Bank of Saint Lucia, as well as the Taiwan Technical Mission to ensure our vendors use the credit card machines, which are very important. They must know how to operate the credit card machines. She urged vendors to be open to learning how to use the machines. “It’s nothing to be afraid of, we are holding their hands to ensure that they operate these cash machines and improve. That is how their sales will increase and improve,” the Minister  explained.

Vendors have complained that tourists and cruise passengers no longer travel with as much physical currency as they once did, opting to pay with Visa Credit Cards. Unfortunately, not all vendors have access to point of sale machines. Vendors have gone on record as saying that the point of sale machines would give their businesses a fighting chance.

“Sometimes the tourists pass and they’re asking us about the machines and we don’t have [it]. I believe it’s important if we have the machines. , because at the end of the day, we’re losing a lot of sales if we don’t have the machines. And they just walk away and we lose our sales,” Allifa Forde, a vendor, explained.

In November, 50 Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) benefited from a one-year free point-of-sale machine service subscription provided through a Digital Enhancement Program spearheaded by the Commerce and Industry Unit, and funded by the Organization of American States (OAS).