Above: Prime Minister Holness, right, next to Floyd Green, views a demonstration of the cash to QR code system by a WiPay representative. Photo and video clips supplied by WiPay.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited the first Cashless Market at Hope Gardens, Jamaica to have a demonstration of how the system worked for customers at the open air public market.

The market’s opening was hailed by Floyd Green, Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Agriculture in a tweet later that day which stated in part, “As with all new advances there were some early challenges, but with that out of the way, people were spending with our purveyors and farmers.”

Early attendees were encouraged by the promise of 50 percent discounts on fruit and vegetables and queued to turn Jamaican dollars into slips of paper they could redeem for purchases throughout the marketplace.

In a later tweet, Green would note that “Our first ever cashless farmers market moved 30,000 pounds of fresh produce, 2 trucks of melon and over 3000 trays of eggs. A good day for agriculture and a good day for the digital economy.”