GRO, immigration services payment now possible via MMG

The Home Affairs Ministry, in partnership with GTT’s Mobile Money Guyana (MMG), on Wednesday launched mobile payment services for the General Register Office (GRO) and Immigration Support Services with the aim of making services more accessible to the public.

The launching ceremony of the cashless and time-efficient alternative through MMG was held at the Home Affairs Ministry on Brickdam, Georgetown.
Guyanese can now enjoy hassle-free transactions from the comfort of their homes, offices, or other convenient locations for services offered by the Guyana Register Office and Immigration Support.
This digital service will allow Guyanese to apply for their birth, marriage, and death certificates, along with other integral documents from the GRO on the Home Affairs Ministry website, then they will be guided by its staff through WhatsApp or a chat option.
The information will then be processed and they will be instructed to make their payments through MMG. After receiving a confirmation code, the documents will be mailed to their respective addresses.
For immigration support services, payments will be accepted through MMG for entry visas, work permits, and extension stay permits among other documents.
Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn said for some time his ministry along with the Government has been trying to get some of its services online.
“I am pleased that we are finally at this point. When we took office, originally, the first few things we talked about was providing more efficient and efficacious services to the public by putting more and more things online because we recognize that people were taking a lot of time and a great deal of effort, particularly those who come from far off places in Guyana”.
“They have to put in time… money, in relation to accessing what at the beginning are fairly basic services, and so we thought that we needed to have online services or a portal to do online services, and we did think of GTT…”, he explained.
The Minister said not only will this digital service aid in more services becoming more accessible to the public, but it will help in crime reduction. He said soon people will not have to walk around with large sums of money because they will have a medium to transfer funds electronically.
“The question of security of money, money transfers…of course, we old people like to have our monies in our pockets and to pay directly with it, and perhaps to have the personal touch in terms of paying that money”.
“But, in these modern days, it needs to be done much quicker and without much frustration and delay”, he said.
Meanwhile, the General Manager of MMG, Bobita Ram said this collaboration provides people with an easier option for their transactions.
She said soon MMG will be catering to the diaspora where persons can pay for their documents in Guyana, from any part of the world.
“The diaspora is coming next… this process is going to make life so much easier for you”, she said.
In the past year, MMG has enabled payments for fuel at SOL-branded gas stations, ferry passes from Parika, West Coast Demerara to Supernaam, Essequibo, the breeze pass at the Demerara Harbour Bridge, the New Building Society, and the Guyana Police Force under the Ministry of Home Affairs. (G9)