KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is embarking on its journey towards digital transformation and aims to have at least 90 per cent of its members register with i- Akaun by 2021, says Head of Services Network Department Mohd Rodzi Abu Bakar.
As of September 2017, about 34 per cent (4.5 million) of 13 million members have registered with the i-Akaun online facility.
“For this year, we have revised upwards our target to have five million i-Akaun members register by year-end as we achieved the initial target of 4.5 million by September this year,” he told reporters recently.
The i-Akaun, introduced in 2004, enabled EPF members to keep track of their contributions, retrieve their statements and check their account transactions online anytime, anywhere.
Mohd Rodzi said not only i- Akaun was able to enhance customer convenience, it was also a “go-green” initiative that could reduce paper usage and subsequently, lower operation costs and manpower.
“More importantly, the online platform aims to cater to the technology-savvy Generation Ys (Gen-Ys) who prefer to do things online,” he said.
Todate, the Gen-Ys accounted for over 50 per cent of EPF contributors and the number was expected to exceed 75 per cent by 2025.
“Therefore, while we aim to have at least 90 per cent of our members register with i- Akaun by 2021, we also hope that 80 per cent of our members would use the facility at that time,” he said.
EPF’s latest data showed that i- Akaun login recorded an average usage of 1.14 million per month from January to September 2017, up from 791,728 per recorded per month last year.
On the initiative to enhance i-Akaun, Mohd Rodzi said the fund planned to allow members to make withdrawals via the e-Pengeluaran facility in i-Akaun without having to make the journey to any EPF office.
Currently, he said, the e-Pengeluaran facility only allowed members to submit their housing or education withdrawal applications online but they still needed go an EPF counter for thumbprint verification.
The e-Pengeluaran facility was introduced in 2013 as part of EPF’s initiative to reduce counter transactions.
Apart from submitting housing or education withdrawal applications, the e-Pengeluaran facility also enabled members to check their nomination.
To register for i-Akaun, members would need to obtain the activation code at any EPF counter through the EPF Kiosks or call the EPF Contact Management Centre at 03-89226000.
In order to encourage more members to register for i- Akaun, Mohd Rodzi said the EPF has mobilised its ambassador team to assist members at all branches.
For added convenience and to be relevant with the times, he said, the EPF has also rolled out the “EPF i- Akaun” mobile application (app) which can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Since its introduction in 2014, about 1.8 million members have downloaded the i- Akaun mobile app.
“The app is a simplified version of the i- Akaun website and we hope to achieve 42 per cent or around two million app users by year-end,” said Mohd Rodzi.
To make the EPF I-Akaun mobile app more attractive and interactive, he said the EPF would introduce more enhancements which included new interface for the statement, push notifications and secured inbox.
“These enhancements are expected to be implemented by year-end,” he added. - Bernama