If we were to see it as a living organism, we would say that in the municipality of Amancio, it requires the typical attention of someone who is admitted to an Intensive Care Unit, the governmental aspiration that commercial operations flow more through digital channels, and with an increased participation of banks.
INVARIABLE SYMPTOMS
The sign that what we generically summarize with the term “bankarization” in “Amancio” is not getting worse, but it is not improving enough, is the daily agglomeration of people at the doors of the two bank branches and the exchange house in the southern town. More than one of those who wait there arrives at dawn and sees the sunrise and rises over the firmament before being able to put the bills in their pockets. These scenes are just a symptom, a “fever” that tells us that something is wrong.
Leodanis de la Cruz Castillo, head of the local branch of the Banco de Crédito y Comercio (Bandec in Spanish), seems to agree, since he says the amount of incoming cash has increased compared to previous calendars. "2023, he says, was a year of teaching, of learning. Bankarization was thought of in one way and difficulties arose".
In 2024, he assures, the panorama improved, noticing more speed in the use of the tax accounts by the self-employed since it was established that it was through these that they made the payment of the monthly contribution for the exercise of their activity, which is commonly called “patent”.
“Our priority, he argues, is retirees, often without the skills to operate a cell phone, let alone an APK”. That is why they are still forced to pay their pensions or retirement entirely in cash. For the rest of the natural persons, the limit remains at a maximum withdrawal of 1,000 pesos per capita per day.
Yosvany Arias Carmenate, director of the Empresa Municipal de Comercio, maintains that there are improvements in the banking system. To prove it, he considers that, except for those located in silent areas, in the rest of its units, the digital gateways are accessible. “Of around 80 million pesos we sold in 2024, some 17 were through online payment; that represents approximately 15 percent of all our sales,” he exemplifies. He admits that it is little; however, concerning what was done in 2023, it is a figure three times higher, he stresses.
"We are focusing on increasing that, starting with our own sales actions in each of our institutions, motivating people to make online payments. The goal we have set is to reach 50 percent of transactions through this method," he adds.
“It is complex within the territory,” says Miladis Frómeta Varona, director of Commerce with state functions. She believes that they left behind the “feverish” state on the verge of convulsions of the first months, although there is no reason to rest. "Resolution 93 (of the Ministry of Internal Trade, Mincin) is cortical, but very clear: anyone who is the subject of registration in the Commercial Registry that markets a good or service to a natural or legal person has to provide access to virtual payment.
“We operate by the resolutions approved for this purpose, and he says, we supervise compliance with these policies”. The objective is that “the client, the consumer, obtains the products and accesses the services most expeditiously."
Frómeta Varona emphasizes the joint work with the rest of the state government institutions in charge of controlling this task; and cites it as one of the most effective “drugs”, among those used to treat this particular patient, the improvement of the work of the Municipal Directorate of the Young Computer and Electronics Clubs. Its performance was not up to the moment, despite having a key role, as the one who must ensure the speed of the procedures towards obtaining the QR required by the economic actors, to offer their customers this payment channel.
Staff training and the search for solutions with key partners, such as Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (Etecsa in Spanish), are the reasons for the recovery, explains Dania Ibáñez Ortega, head of the Joven Club in “Amancio”. The time lapses that used to last for months, between the application and receiving the QR, have now been reduced to less than 24 hours, she says.
However, there are still more than 100 applications that, due to errors made by the operators or the economic actors themselves, have not been completed, he says.
"The cash inflow to the banks is below what we need. As long as we see those queues, we cannot say that the process of bankarization is effective", emphasizes Marlenis Rivero García, director of Finance and Prices in the municipality. Certainly, the self-employed are coming to deposit cash in the banks, complying with the agreement with the Government authorities; but the amounts, she warns, are below the intensity of their activities, as shown by the studies they have made.
During the most critical days of this “illness” suffered by the banking system on financial soil, there were almost 600 fiscal accounts with zero operations. This figure is much lower today, emphasizes Humberto Alonso Romagoza, head of the local headquarters of the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT in Spanish). “We only have eight taxpayers left without them,” he adds.
In addition, he describes, they reconcile data with the colleagues of Labor and the banks to purify the information in this respect, because more than one fiscal account, technically active, appears in the name of entrepreneurs who emigrated abroad or stopped exercising the activity for which they opened it at the time.
PALLIATIVE TREATMENT...?
The strategy in the westernmost municipality of Las Tunas to promote banking and the digital economy seems to try, amid economic limitations and decision-making prerogatives, to leave without plausible reason the justifications argued by those who do not comply with the obligation to provide users or buyers access to digital payment channels.
That purpose clashes with the reality of a connectivity infrastructure below what would be needed. This is sadly noticeable in places such as Las Pulgas, the lower areas of Ana Luisa 2, the road between Guayabal and the head town of this territory, and also in El Indio, Las Maboas, or Sitio Viejo.
The energy problems add other “comorbidities” such as the slowness in telecommunications due to the congestion in the data traffic, when there are few cellular telephony radio bases left in operation, even in the municipal capital.
Maykel González Aguilar, head of Etecsa's Telecommunications Center in “Amancio”, clarifies that they are rigorous in scheduled maintenance, something that distinguishes the company of Las Tunas’ Division.
This schedule, he insists, is met every month, both concerning the physical infrastructure and the software that operates it. But it is beyond his capabilities, and those of the country, to say when the limitations with the batteries and other situations that have occurred, such as the lack of fuel, which affect the radio bases located in entities with generators, will come to an end.
Another issue of concern to this group of “galenos” is what will happen to communications agents residing in rural areas with little or no link to the conventional cellular network. For them, the resolutions in force exempt them from providing access to payment gateways; it does not exempt them from keeping their respective fiscal bank accounts active and in use, something that is very difficult for them to comply with because they invoice few services per month, precisely because they are located in sparsely populated areas.
Judging by its current situation, one would think that only technological deficiencies and economic asymmetries are responsible for the fact that the municipality of Manatí lags behind its counterparts in the territory, in the shared effort to advance in the banking and digitalization of its commercial operations. The reality seems to be somewhat more complex. That would be the summarized idea we get after taking a sort of "family photo" of those who, in the land of Barbarito Diez, are concerned about and dealing with a high-priority issue for the nation.
HORSECURE?
The condition is severe; therefore, it is approached as a team from the Banking Group, which every Thursday makes its “medical meeting” and reviews the “vital signs” of the patient. In one of their meetings, for example, they agreed on the need to take immediate steps such as the transition to digital channels for the monthly salary payment of the workers of Communal Services; and removing from the group of laggards in the use of digital channels in their operations the establishments belonging to the Pharmacies and Opticians or Local Industries (Vascal in Spanish) companies, as well as those representing the peasant sector.
In previous statements, farmers in these areas warned that the scarcity of ATMs and formal markets forces them to depend on physical money. Although bankarization offers advantages, such as security and agility in payments, they said, its implementation is uneven due to limited infrastructure and digital disconnection in rural areas. In their view, it is a process that requires practical adjustments so as not to exclude those who sustain agricultural production.
Looking at what would be a daily medical report, we would read that the “patient”, although not getting worse, is not recovering at the desired speed; to the point of feeling that the worst is over, but knowing that the diagnosis is still reserved, since the objective conditions that slow down bankarization do not show signs of immediate changes.
The team in charge of this matter at “Amancio” has learned from its mistakes, and some of the measures applied seem to be working. However, it is clear to them that tougher measures will be needed to change the underlying reasons for the “disease”. That is why they anticipate that, beyond the pitfalls beyond their control, it is time to move from warnings and conversations to more punitive “therapies” with the violators of the legislation in this matter.
