KJP is short for Kartu Jakarta Pintar, or Jakarta Smart Card – a virtual wallet similar to Singapore’s CashCard. It was introduced by the Jakarta government as a welfare benefit for students from low-income families living in the capital.
The KJP system was introduced in 2012 to disperse welfare funds and also to prevent the money from being embezzled by corrupt officials, or misuse by welfare beneficiaries. With more than half a million cards issued, KJP holders make up the largest group of cashless payment users among Indonesia’s 250 million people.
The country is projected to have 103.5 million people owning a smartphone this year, according to Hamburg-based online statistics firm Statisca, making Indonesia the third-largest smartphone market in the Asia Pacific after China and India. Retail e-commerce sales in Indonesia totalled US$5.65bn (S$7.9bn) last year, up from US$4.61bn in 2015, said Statisca. The market research firm expects this figure to reach US$10.34bn in 2019.