Smart People Who Seize Opportunities Will Win

KOMPAS/JUMARTO YULIANUS

Mohammad Misbahul Munir (left), 34, a laku pandai business player in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, serves financial transactions at his kiosk on Monday (23/12/2019). Since 2015, Munir has been a BRILink agent and is now one of the most prominent agents.

In the era of technological disruption, some residents grab the opportunity to be engageranchless Banking Services for Financial Inclusion or Laku Pandai (smart act). Quite d in Ba number of them are successful.

A small kiosk marked “Agen BRILink Munir”, between two staple food shops in the THR Market, Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Monday (23/12/2019), open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Central Indonesian Time, was never deserted. Visitors were coming and going for financial transactions at the kiosk owned by Mohammad Misbahul Munir, 34.

At about 11 a.m. a man came to deliver a stack of banknotes. “Please send it to my [account] number,” he said. “The total is Rp 20 million, Pak,” responded Munir after counting the cash that was in Rp 100,000 bills.

Then Munir pressed BRI electronic data capture (EDC) machine buttons on his table, which printed a slip recording the transaction information. “It’s done, Pak. The fee is Rp 20,000,” said Munir, giving him the slip. The transaction took less than five minutes.

A number of truck drivers arrived from Trisakti Port and Martapura Baru Port. Some transferred cash worth Rp 10.6 million and Rp 8.5 million, others withdrew Rp 500,000 to Rp 2 million in banknotes. There were some buying electricity tokens, telephone credit vouchers and paying installments.

Within an hour that noon, no less than 30 people were transacting at Munir’s kiosk. Their transaction value was almost Rp 50 million. He remained seated as he was busily serving customers.

Munir’s kiosk originally served cell phone credit voucher purchases. In 2015, he turned to functioning as a BRILink agent. His kiosk thus serves various financial transactions like a bank.

KOMPAS/JUMARTO YULIANUS

Customers flock to Mohammad Misbahul Munir’s kiosk that offers financial transaction services in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Monday (23/12/2019). Since 2015, Munir has been a BRILink agent and is now one of the most prominent agents.

“Mas Munir considerably helps and facilitates money transfers to my boss or my wife and children,” said Gunawan, 47, a truck driver from Surabaya.

The presence of Laku Pandai can be likened to fresh air, especially in small villages such as Cikeris, Bojong district, Purwakarta, West Java. Proximity, ease of transactions and intimate ties with the persons in charge are the reasons residents use bank agent services.

Maman Suryadi, 61, a resident of Cikeris, hurriedly entered the BriLink Dea Cell agent’s shop while wearing his yellow helmet. “I want to transfer,” said Maman, showing his account number on his cell phone.

For more than two years he has had deals with the branchless bank agent. Since his presence, he has spared himself the chore of traveling the distance of 26 kilometers to reach the city hub of Purwakarta for banking purposes.

At the Bank Mandiri Toko Ayah Bunda agent in West Bojong village, Purwakarta, a number of residents packed the shop. At about 12 noon, they formed a neat line, waiting for their turns. After a while, two officers quickly served them.

Teti Siti Rohmah, the owner of the Bank Mandiri Toko Ayah Bunda agency, has striven to enhance customer service and convenience by using an automatic cash counting device, increasing the number of seats and installing four CCTV cameras.

“There were once complaints about cash amounts being less than they should have been. So the CCTV is important,” she said.

Efficient

The existence of Laku Pandai has made financial transactions even more efficient.

One of the Laku Pandai agents of Bank BNI, Warsono, in Gresik, East Java, said his customers, mostly villagers, could now access banking services with ease. Residents can not only use it for savings and money transfers, they can also be engaged in electronic trade transactions (e-commerce). “There’s no more need to far-off bank offices. It saves costs,” he said.

A Bank BNI Laku Pandai agent in Tuban, Iyan Pasiyan, said Bank BNI customers in Tuban had also been helped. There are 915 Laku Pandai agents spread over villages. They usually are owners of staple food shops and village-owned enterprises (BUMDes).

The agents’ presence makes village residents better acquainted with financial transactions. While in the past they only knew cash payments, today they get familiar with noncash transactions, including the disbursement of central government aid programs.

Laku Pandai also educates village residents, particularly housewives, on savings accounts. “Most of them are depositing weekly. The values deposited range from Rp 10,000 to Rp 50,000,” said Feni, 38, the owner of a merchandise kiosk in Ngejo village, Karangploso, Malang regency, East Java.

Greater Malang, with a population of 3 million, covers Malang city, Malang regency and Batu city. This region has a major potential for the growth of Laku Pandai.

Until the third quarter of 2019, there were 33,380 individual agents and 753 statutory agents within the Financial Services Authority (OJK) zone of Malang. The total of customers without minimum limits (basic savings accounts/BSA) reached 227,191 people with nominal savings worth Rp 5.2 billion. Credit or micro financing customers totaled 1,209 people with a credit amount of Rp 24.6 billion.

“Laku Pandai draws interest because many people become even more bank-literate,” said the head of the Malang OJK’s subdivision of consumer education and protection, Fetri Andriani.

At the national level, the OJK has recorded Laku Pandai’s quite rapid progress. Launched in June 2015, it originally involved only six banks managing 3,734 agents, with nearly 40,000 customers and total savings worth Rp 2.9 billion. In September 2019 there were 32 managing banks with about 1.1 million agents serving more than 25 million customers. Their total savings were worth more than Rp 2.2 trillion.

The adaptation to technological and digital developments has turned into a big opportunity behind the wave of disruption itself. (JUM/MEL/ETA/SYA/WER)