PayPoint, a technology-enabled distribution network for financial services, has launched a digital gold facility on its platform, targeting the rural areas to invest in gold. Digital gold has become increasingly popular in the urban market, but in the rural market, the demand for e-gold remains low due to less digital knowledge and awareness. For this initiative, the company has launched an e-gold facility on its platform, a network of more than forty-eight thousand physical stores, to make the investment process safer and simple for rural families.
According to PayPoint, this initiative is for customers who have less knowledge of online technology to conveniently buy and sell digital-gold with guided assistance from the company store staff. Individuals can invest in 22-carat gold for as low as Rs 500. The digital gold facility enables the purchase of e-gold in small quantities without opening a Demat account.
The PayPoint’s digital gold initiative can avoid customers’ downsides of buying physical gold such as identifying its legitimacy and purity, safekeeping, storage problems, and others. The company said that once a customer or an individual buys digital from nearby retail or Kirana stores associated with PayPoint, an equivalent amount of physical gold is purchased and stored in government-approved secured vaults on behalf of the customer, the trustee of these vaults is Axis Bank and these are the measures put in place to safeguard the interests of the customers.
According to Ketan Doshi, Managing Director of PayPoint India, the cost of acquiring actual gold in the form of bars, coins, or jewelry is very high, as gold is trading at around approx. Rs 5,000 per gram currently. Thus, the company plan to take the concept of digital gold to the last-mile with small value investment, thereby encourage low-income households to select regular micro-savings and added that the need for security has become important during the COVID-19 induced unprecedented times.
The Company said with the e-gold/digital gold systematic investment plans, customers can gradually build their own assets even with their low- income and achieve a degree of financial security in challenging times. PayPoint has done a pilot run with some retailers and witnessed a positive response from customers opting for daily, weekly, and monthly investment.
