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All 1.3 million Singaporean households will receive S$100 in Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers.

The government's S$130 million CDCs voucher scheme begun its rollout on Oct. 18, with the onboarding of heartland merchants and hawkers.

Previously announced during Budget 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said the scheme was to thank Singaporeans for their sense of solidarity and to support heartland businesses.

This will also be the first time that the vouchers are distributed digitally, as opposed to the physical paper vouchers that were distributed in previous iterations.

Digital process to make life for hawkers easier

As part of the initiative, over the next few months, CDC vouchers ambassadors from the CDCs and SG Digital Office (SDO) will be inviting and guiding heartland merchants and hawkers to download and use the RedeemSG Merchant app.

The app will allow heartland merchants and hawkers to easily accept government-issued digital vouchers and track voucher transactions.

Chairperson of the Mayor's Committee and Mayor of the South West District Low Yen Ling, said the digital distribution had come about partly in response to feedback from hawkers.

"We’ve improved the CDC vouchers scheme by creating a solution for easy customer redemptions and faster payouts to heartland merchants and hawkers," she said.

The new digital process will also eliminate the need for hawkers to collect, count, and hand over paper vouchers.

"We hope heartland merchants and hawkers will take this chance to get on board this free scheme which will not only help widen their customer base, but also provide a guided initiation to the use of digital platforms for their long-term growth and future," she added.

Heartland merchants and hawkers can go online to register their interest, and a CDC vouchers ambassador will reach out to them in the next two weeks.

The CDC vouchers scheme is expected to be launched officially in a few months’ time.

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