CDC Vouchers 2022: Another Way for Hawkers and Heartland Businesses to Go Digital

As the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, it’s up to the government and its officials to think of ways to help its citizens. One of them is the Community Development Council (CDC) voucher scheme where households can receive S$100 vouchers, which they could use to pay at hawker centres and heartland merchants. It’s a win-win for both parties as households can enjoy additional budget for food, groceries, and other needs, while business owners can keep on selling their products. It’s a good way to help the economy going.

CDC Voucher Scheme for Businesses

The CDC voucher scheme allows participating merchants and hawker centres to receive vouchers from customers as a form of payment. There are no commissions or fees when joining and payouts can be received the next day through preferred payment methods. For bank transfers, a bank account number is enough. For PayNow, the needed details are a mobile phone number and either the unique entity number (UEN) of the business or the National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) of the business owner.

To join, business owners simply need to express their interest directly to the CDC website and fill out a form. An officer — either an ambassador from the CDC or a digital ambassador from Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)’s SG Digital Office (SDO) — will get in touch within 14 calendar days. They will provide training during the onboarding process to make sure businesses are aware of how the system works. Newly onboarded merchants will receive a S$30 incentive. For those who don’t know which CDC they fall under, a district locator is available on the CDC’s website. All it needs is a postal code. If no contact was initiated after 14 days, it’s best to contact the respective CDCs through e-mail.

Going Digital for Contactless Payments

In the previous years, the CDC vouchers came in different physical denominations. But since it can be a health risk to keep and receive these vouchers, not to mention the risk of them being misplaced, they have gone digital this 2022. Heartland merchants and hawker centres now need to install the RedeemSG Merchant app (either from Apple Store or Google Play Store) and log in with their mobile number.

A six-character shop code will be sent via SMS or provided by an ambassador during onboarding, and that’s it! Business owners can now start scanning vouchers. If the owner won’t be present for a specific time or day, the shop code can be shared with the rest of the staff so whoever is present in store can receive the vouchers. For multiple branches, however, business owners need to sign up each branch as a single shop account.

As part of the Household Support Package, which was announced at Budget 2022, CDCs will be given three new tranches from 2022 to 2024. There’s no need to register every year once onboarded.

All participating heartland merchants and hawker centres can be found on Go Where’s website. Customers can either search for a specific merchant or search one nearby by typing a street name or postal code. A map that shows the number of merchants accepting CDC vouchers in an area is also available. To make sure that customers are aware that an establishment is accepting CDC vouchers, decals will be displayed at each shopfront.