The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Trinidad and Tobago has signed a deal to deploy a real-time platform for both person-to-person and person-to-merchant transactions, expanding digital payments in the country and fostering financial inclusion. Launched in 2016, the UPI has been central to India’s efforts to use digital payments to boost financial inclusion and has now handled well over 100 billion transactions. The NPCI international subsidiary was set up in 2020 to push the UPI, as well as the RuPay card network, outside of India. Already this year, the unit has struck deals with Peru, Namibia and Nepal’s largest payment network, and it has also joined forces with Google Pay to accelerate global expansion. A ministry spokesperson says: "Fashioned on India’s UPI, the digital payment platform will facilitate innovation in the fintech sector, enhance the technical resiliency of the current payment infrastructure by providing a complementary, non-competing digital payments platform with increased security through the reduced use of cash. Moreover, successful implementation will contribute to the financial inclusion of our unbanked citizens."