MEDIA EVENT: POSB SMART BUDDY PROGRAMME
Last week, I attended a Media Invite by POSB for the introduction to their Smart Buddy Program – the world’s first in-school wearable tech savings & payments programme that 19 of our primary schools are already participating in! Despite knowing Axl is too young to enjoy the benefits of the programme, I knew it would be great for my readers with primary school going kids!
INTRODUCTION BY THE POSB TEAM! 
19 PRIMARY SCHOOLS, MORE THAN 6000 STUDENTS & COUNTING…
Designed to engage and be relevant to this new generation of digitally-savvy kids, more than 6,000 POSB Smart Buddy watches were issued to these students. They learn how to spend wisely by tracking the digital payments they make in their school’s canteen &Â bookstores, monitor the savings of their allowances and even create their own savings goals which are recorded as badges when they’re achieved!
SCHOOL’S CANTEENS & BOOKSTORES ARE SET UP WITH DIGITAL PAYMENT TERMINALS.
They can also buy digital Smiley Stamps at 50 cents each at their school bookstore to complete their digital stamp savings card. Once the card is complete, the savings will be automatically transferred to their POSBkids savings account. Students can also use the watch to pay for purchases at ALL MERCHANTS with NETS contactless terminals that are outside of school, such as CHEERS or POPULAR bookstores, etc.
TRYING OUT THE WATCH ON THE NETS CONTACTLESS TERMINAL
Not only that, the watch also doubles as a fitness tracker and ‘counts’ your child’s daily steps, distance travelled and calories burnt!
Parents can in turn remotely pre-set their children’s daily allowances, send them emergency money, and monitor their kids’ spending, savings, eating habits and activity levels – all through an accompanying app which you link your savings account to. Accumulated savings can be automatically be transferred into your child’s POSBkids account. If the child loses their watch, you can remotely disable the device in an instant.
Other benefits include Financial Assistance Scheme(FAS) support – where students on FAS have their subsidies and allowances automatically credited into the programme, replacing the usual coupons or vouchers. In the process, also providing discreetly to needy students!
I also heard that they are in the process of providing upcoming features like location trackers (which allows parents to track their child’s location within the school compound – canteen, library, classroom, etc. Or track the real-time location of the school bus and be notified when their child boards or alights from the school bus) and biometric features.
Schools or parents who wish to find out more about the POSB Smart Buddy programme can visit www.posb.com.sg/smartbuddy or email posbsmartbuddy@dbs.com.