(Seychelles News Agency) - A group of web developers has been trained in e-commerce in a bid to modernise Seychelles' digital payment systems.

Sixty participants attended the three-day training hosted by the Central Bank in collaboration with the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT) and three commercial banks.

The training focused on e-commerce and provided website developers with skills on how to embed payment gateways into websites.

The financial inclusion analyst of the Central Bank, Jonathan Valentin, told the press on Thursday that it is important for Seychelles to modernise its digital payment system.

"There is a need to have website developers in the country that have the ability to work with banks and merchants to see how they can interlink their systems so that more people migrate to using digital payment facility when transacting," said Valentin.

The development of e-commerce is part of efforts to promote the use of digital financial services. This gained momentum with several restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred the government and private entities to roll out adaptive measures to manage the impact of the pandemic.

The training focused on e-commerce and provided website developers with skills on how to embed payment gateways into websites.  (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

Safety and security of using digital payment were also covered in the training to gain trust in the services.

"There is a lot of work to be done to sensitise people on using digital services as a first option to perform their financial transactions. We want people to trust in these services and we want them to know that there are enough laws in place to protect them while using it," he added.

The subject of internet connectivity was also raised as it is important for online transactions.

"A lot of our initiatives being taken to modernise our digital system depends a lot on the internet. We are working to remove these existing barriers by working closely with the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT) and telecom companies," said Valentin.

A participant in the training, Alvyna Vidot, said it was very fruitful and that "we can keep on exploring new payments method in the future."

In her opening remarks, the Central Bank Governor, Caroline Abel, noted that while there is increased interest and willingness for leveraging online payments, challenges have been identified, especially with regards to capacity in this sector.

"Gaps have been identified whereby the average website developer often does not have the competence or awareness to integrate payment solutions within websites. Hence, these specialist services may be sub-contracted, leading to high margins and increasing cost to the client," she said.

"With the appropriate training, we believe that local website developers will be better aware of the options available and will have the technical capacity to integrate these payment platforms within websites, and as such, potentially contributing to the ease of access to goods and services and reducing the cost to the customer," said Abel.

The training ties in with the implementation of the digital economy agenda of the government of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean.