Citi has launched a new mobile payment solution for small grocery stores and similar businesses in the Dominican Republic. The service, called Citi Mobile Collect, lets those merchants replace cash payments to their providers with mobile transactions.

According to Citi, the Dominican Republic has around 80,000 neighborhood grocery stores and small businesses, the majority of which still pay their providers using cash. Using the new system merchants can complete financial transactions with those providers who are Citi corporate clients using a mobile payment. Citi corporate clients participating in the program include Philip Morris Dominicana and Frito Lay Dominicana.

“Citi Mobile Collect uses cutting-edge technology in an innovative way to address provider payment limitations that directly affect our corporate clients in the Dominican Republic,” explained Máximo Vidal, General Manager, Citi Dominican Republic. “We are offering providers a more efficient way to receive payment from their distributors, even in communities with low levels of banking, allowing them to expand their market.”

The technology was introduced through a strategic partnership with GCS Systems, a local mobile payment administrator, Citi said. The service is run in collaboration with Banco ADOPEM, a leading microfinance institution. It offers small businesses that are "unbanked" to open an account and perform more secure and convenient business transactions, the company said.

Citi said it plans to introduce the system in other Latin American countries, as well.

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