Mobile payments

The State Of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems In Africa

The report assesses the landscape of 32 instant payment systems in Africa, measuring their performance on criteria such as interoperability, use cases, channels, and governance.

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

Kenya's National Payments Strategy 2022-2025

The 2022-2025 strategy envisages a secure, fast, efficient and collaborative payments system that supports financial inclusion and innovations for all Kenyans.

Developing Inclusive Digital Payment Systems

This report from Centre for Strategic and International Studies makes a strong case for digital payments for equity, development and security.

McKinsey: The future of payments in the Middle East

Through surveys with consumers and payments practitioners, McKinsey share anticipated trends which will shape the region’s ‘payments revolution’ over the next five years.

Ethiopia Digital Payments Strategy: Digital Ethiopia 2025

A digital strategy for Ethiopia inclusive prosperity

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.

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.

Accelerating winds of change in global payments

The COVID-19 crisis is having a significant and widespread effect on global payments across sectors. The most striking and potentially lasting impact is an accelerating pace of change in the industry.

The digital lives of refugees and Kenyans with disabilities in Nairobi: A human-centred design approach to identifying mobile-enabled opportunities

This research focuses on disability, using human-centred design methods to better understand how refugees and Kenyans with visual and hearing impairments in Nairobi use mobile technology and potential opportunities that it could provide.

Toward a Cash-Lite Ghana: Building an Inclusive Digital Payments Ecosystem

The Ghana Digital Payments Roadmap is designed to chart the way to a vibrant and inclusive digital payments ecosystem.

Opportunities for digital in Pakistan 

GSMA report estimates that mobile phone ecosystem contributes around $16.7 billion to the Pakistani economy. To enhance the impact of mobile-enabled digital transformation, it calls for improving digital financial inclusion and taking a whole of government approach to development.

Digital Economy Blueprint: Kenya

Kenya’s “Digital Economy Blueprint” provides a conceptual framework for setting up a successful digital economy in the country. The document identifies and explores five pillars of focus and is relevant for our work not just in Kenya but across Africa.

How to create modern G2P payment systems

New CGAP focus note explores the core idea behind future-ready G2P payments, lays out its advantages and challenges, and describes how governments can create modern G2P payments systems. It draws heavily from ongoing efforts in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

8 ways to boost Africa's digital ecosystem

The World Economic Forum and International Trade Centre’s “Africa e-commerce agenda” discusses 8 policy areas - including enhancing digital payments - that can help unleash the potential of e-commerce in the continent.

bKash: Revolutionizing Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh?

This study discusses the emergence of bKash as the m-banking pioneer in Bangladesh. It focuses on the services provided by bKash and its current operating scenario in Bangladesh. bKash’s str…

How to consolidate gains in digital payments

This CG Dev paper, by Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, shows how M-Pesa’s success has led to a series of endogenous innovations that have shaped Kenya’s digital space. It outlines several important challenges that Kenya will need to address in order to further consolidate its success, including connectivity issues, digital ID, interoperability and consumer protection.

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.

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.

The Digital Lives of Refugees

This report by GSMA and UNHCR looks at the ways in which refugees are using mobile phones to help guide digital interventions by humanitarian organizations and mobile network operators.