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How Tanzania Established Mobile Money Interoperability

Tanzania’s mobile money industry is flourishing. With a new set of standards governing person-to-person payments across multiple networks, it’s now evident that interoperability is here to stay.

Can Digital Cash Transfers Enable Financial Inclusion in India?

Although digitizing cash transfers in India is gaining momentum with a renewed effort by the national government, the direct positive impact on financial inclusion remains unclear.

What is USSD & Why Does it Matter for Mobile Financial Services?

USSD - unstructured supplementary service data - is currently the best available communications technology to deliver mobile financial services to low-income customers.

Setting the Stage for Mobile Money in Myanmar

The rapid growth in telecommunications coverage in Myanmar is laying important groundwork that can support growth of digital financial services for the unbanked.

Mobile Money in Pakistan: From OTC to Accounts, Part 2

Despite the continued dominance of agent-assisted OTC transactions in Pakistan, it is not all doom and gloom. We note four recent developments that just might trigger a rapid expansion in mobile account usage in 2015.

Mobile Money in Pakistan: From OTC to Accounts, Part 1

The latest data from the Intermedia Financial Inclusion Insights survey suggests that providers continue to focus on basic over-the-counter (OTC) services. Kabir Kumar and Dan Radcliffe discuss lessons learned from the survey and Pakistan’s potential for digital financial inclusion.

Building Big Backbones for Innovation

Building a network of agents across a broad geography has proved to be a huge barrier to entering the digital finance space for small or medium-sized companies. In Bangaldesh and Nigeria, industry giants are building the channels necessary to allow smaller players to get in the game.

Merchant Incentives in the Shift to Cashless Food Aid

Shifting social support benefits through electronic payments instead of cash or in-kind contributions offers many benefits, but evidence from existing programs suggests that the link between these payments and financial inclusion is is challenging to make.

Transforming Payments through mPOS: Perspectives from Indonesia

For traditional merchants in Indonesia, cash is still a mainstay of doing business. CGAP and partners set out to understand what might motivate more merchants to use digital forms of payment, particularly mobile point-of-service (mPOS) devices.

Is Tanzania Ready for Interoperability in Mobile Money?

Even though interoperability could potentially benefit the mobile financial services market, thus far there have been few attempts to get mobile money systems to work together. It may be too early for interoperability in some areas, Tanzania seems ready.

Can Mobile Money Extend Financial Services To Smallholder Farmers

On paper, digital financial services can sound like a silver bullet to reach millions of rural, underserved smallholder farmers. In reality, the challenges can be greater than the deployment of a low-tech solution.

Bringing Mobile Wallets to Nigerian Farmers

Cellulant developed a mobile wallet network in Nigeria that extends to some eight million farmers. With more than 40 million transactions in just two years, smallholder farmers in Nigeria are poised to adopt digital financial services more broadly.

Smallholder Finance: Digital Solutions to Traditional Challenges?

A new CGAP focus note takes a look at the ways digital financial services can help overcome the traditional "pain points" - including higher cost and risk - of serving smallholder farmers with formal financial services.

What Next for Remittances and Money Transfers in the Pacific?

There is a risk that recent progress in the Pacific region to drive down the cost of remittances will be undone, as money transfer operators are facing increased regulatory pressures.

Can a Digitized Post Realize India’s Financial Inclusion Dreams?

With a giant effort currently underway to digitize India’s Post, this blog analyzes the prospects of India’s postal network to address the country’s financial inclusion challenges.

Payment Innovations Improve Access to Solar Energy, Clean Water

A number of business model innovations that link poor households to better basic services are becoming economically viable through advances in digital payments infrastructure. This blog discusses three lessons on how to advance the nascent field of "Digital Finance Plus".

Don’t Forget the Value Proposition for G2P E-Payment Recipients

Theory indicates that G2P payments can be a gateway to financial inclusion, but behavior on the ground suggests that receiving social cash transfers electronically has not influenced recipients to become e-payment users in general.

Infrastructure, Consistency are the Backbone of G2P E-Payments

A new Focus Note examines the opportunities and challenges involved in implementing social cash transfer schemes in Uganda, Haiti, the Philippines, and Kenya

Killer Apps in China: Social Networks and Financial Inclusion

In China, financial services offered through social media have recently begun to take off, with interesting potential to expand financial inclusion.

Seasonal, Unsteady Income Drives Economic Vulnerability in Brazil

Although nearly 30 million Brazilians have moved out of poverty and into the middle class in the last decade, millions remain vulnerable due to seasonal and unpredictable income patterns.