Mobile money

Bottlenecks for mobile-money adoption

This paper aims at investigating the driving factors for mobile money adoption in the WAEMU region. It identifies literacy rate, mobile infrastructure, and banking infrastructure (ATMs\100,000 people) as the main macroeconomic determinants for adoption.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: The Impact of Mobile Money on Poverty Toolkit

Mobile money accounts have spread widely in select regions of the developing world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This Research Brief focuses on the individual and household impacts of mobile money.

E-money, Financial Inclusion and Mobile Money Tax in Sub-Saharan African Mobile Networks

The paper studies the incidence of new mobile money excise duties on the adoption of electronic money.

Decade Edition of the State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money

The report charts the story of mobile money covering a decade of progress, industry lessons,impact and the future of the industry.

The Impact of Mobile Money on Poor Rural Households : Experimental Evidence from Uganda

Does access to mobile money help improve livelihood in remote settings? This paper shows that rolling out mobile money agents in Northern Uganda led to cost-savings for remittance transactions. It also shows that access to digital payments doubled the nonfarm self-employment rate and reduced the fraction of households with very low food security. 

The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money

The report studies the adoption of Mobile money in Kenya and highlights how Mobile money has resulted in reduction of poverty in Kenya.

Mobile money increasing healthcare access

The article highlights that although health insurance coverage is still low in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile money use have increased access to it.

WHO taps into Africa's flourishing mobile money space

Mobile money enabled cash assistance: User journeys in Burundi

This report understands the lived experiences of Concern Burundi’s CVA recipients who are receiving mobile money-enable humanitarian aid.

Why Women Remain an Untapped Potential in Mobile Money

It’s hard to imagine a more explosive, transformative, and empowering trend than the growth of the mobile phone sector in Africa.

Mobile money for 16,000 Ebola workers

December 24 , 2014. Sierre Leone: Marion Sesay gossiped with her two work colleagues while they waited in the shade of a local money handler for their names to be called….

Mobile money promotes messages of peace in Cote d’Ivoire

Many Ivoirians were concerned that the 2015 presidential elections would lead to renewed conflict, particularly after the violence surrounding the elections of 2010. …

Ethiopia: “Mobile money doubled my number of customers in just three years”

In Addis Ababa, the vibrant Ethiopian capital, lies a busy Somali community market where Bisharo runs a small shop.

2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money

The mobile money industry is now processing a billion dollars a day and generating direct revenues of over $2.4 billion. With 690 million registered accounts worldwide, mobile money has evol…

What does mobile money usage look like in Rwanda and Ghana?

This report discusses significant data points from the Financial Inclusion Insights Surveys in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ghana.

Distribution 2.0: The future of mobile money agent distribution networks

In December 2017, there were over 2.9 million active agents and 690 million registered customer accounts worldwide. Primarily responsible for registering customer accounts, mobile money agen…

Mobile Money and the importance of timely, complete payments to frontline health campaign workers in the fight to eradicate polio: pilot experience from a WHO digital payment platform in Africa

Small-scale Kenyan farmers use mobile money to turn remittances into farm profits

A study has found that Kenyan farmers who use mobile money have 35% higher profits per acre of banana production than non-users. Mobile money also increased household income by 40% and contr…

Lessons on taxing mobile money transactions

This Brookings policy paper, by Prof. Njuguna Ndung'u, argues that instead of increasing the tax base, taxation on mobile phone transactions may end up reversing the adoption of digital payments in Kenya. It says these lessons are also relevant for other African countries considering similar taxes.