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Rural vs Urban Mobile Money Use: Insights From Demand-Side Data

The second post in our series described the importance of demand-side data for understanding consumers and their financial habits and needs. Various organizations are contributing to the global pool of demand-side data in branchless banking and in this post we’ll focus on two of the main sources. The Financial Inclusion Tracking Surveys (FITS) are annual household panel surveys in Uganda, Tanzania, and Pakistan while the Tanzania Mobile Money Tracker Study (TMMT) uses quarterly surveys to track market trends. Both are being carried out by InterMedia and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this post, we’ll highlight some of the analysis on rural and urban households to demonstrate the actionable insights that can be gathered from such datasets.

Finding Real World Relevance for Microinsurance Research

Without mechanisms like insurance in place to manage the enormous amount of risk in the lives of the poor, hard fought gains against poverty may be wiped out when the inevitable shocks of everyday life occur, be they the death or disability of a breadwinner, sickness, a failed harvest, or the loss of property due to a natural disaster or fire or theft.

Consumer Education and Mobile Money Adoption

Consumer education adds value not only for clients, but also for mobile money providers and for their financial institution partners. This post from Microfinance Opportunities shines a light on client behaviors and challenges, and identifies ways to address them: either through information to the consumer, or by helping providers to look inwardly for solutions which result in an improved consumer experience that can lead to greater uptake and use of mobile money products.

The Emerging Landscape of Demand-side Data in Branchless Banking

The second post in a series on the emerging branchless banking data architecture focuses on the demand side of the data equation and attempts to answer questions such as: which clients are using which products for which purpose? What aspects of a service are they satisfied or dissatisfied with? And, perhaps most importantly, is the service having a positive impact on their general well-being?

A Digital Pathway To Financial Inclusion

A growing body of evidence suggests that connecting poor people to a digital financial system will generate sizable welfare benefits. But countries cannot bridge the cash-digital divide in one leap. Instead, they pass through several stages of market development.

Looking Back at Trends in Branchless Banking in 2012

2013 is already off to a fast start in the branchless banking industry, in particular with lots of news out of India about the government’s new push to further digitize the delivery of welfare benefits to the poor. But before we leave 2012 behind, we’ve compiled some of the top developments in the branchless banking industry from the past year.

The Emerging Global Data Architecture of Branchless Banking

This first post in this series lays out a conceptual map of the data landscape and takes a closer look at the supply-side data gathering efforts worldwide. It is important to note that while various initiatives have begun to look at the wider financial inclusion data architecture from the supply and demand-side, branchless banking and mobile money data is still missing from many datasets or is poorly represented.

Unintentional Consequences: Branchless Banking In Ghana

Ghana should be a ripe market for mobile money. Yet, as CGAP has written about before, the market has been slow to take off. In this post and video, Elly Ohene-Adu, Head of Financial Inclusion at the Central Bank of Ghana, speaks with CGAP about some of the issues with the current regulations and how the BoG is planning to tackle them.

Remembering PINs in Rural Bangladesh

Firsthand observations in some of the branchless banking initiatives around the world indicate that poor customers tend to struggle with remembering and correctly entering their personal identification number (PIN) to access and verify transactions in their branchless banking account. The Employment Generation Program for the Poorest (EGPP) conducted research to assess whether and how beneficiaries can be trained to recognize and remember numbers, even if they are illiterate.

It’s Not Quantity but Quality: Consumer Research from Brazil

CGAP and Bradesco recently partnered with IDEO, the global design consultancy to help develop a payments product that better serves the needs of C,D,E class in Brazil. Insights from low income consumers are often not sufficiently and effectively gleaned before financial products aiming to target them are developed. However, witnessing IDEO's innovative approach to consumer research reminds us that simple yet effective tools can reinforce existing data and provide better insights.

Côte d’Ivoire: A Perfect Time for Mobile Money?

Côte d’Ivoire has seen its mobile money industry make significant progress in recent years. The latest results from the sector suggest good prospects moving forward. At the end of Q3 2012, there were 2.6 million registered mobile money clients across all providers in the market. This post explores the recent market dynamic in this west African country.

Innovations in Islamic Microfinance for Small Farmers in Sudan

To enable financial inclusion for small farmers, the entire value chain needs to be understood and supported, and financial products have to be designed keeping in mind their unique needs. We at Bank of Khartoum believe that Islamic microfinance products can effectively reach small farmers in Sudan when customized to their needs.

Can Retailers and MNOs Provide More Efficient Financial Services?

When it comes to financial inclusion, retail has been one of the late driving forces in Latin America. In the past, banks have been unable to cater to over 50% percent of households in the region. Retailers have filled some of this gap and have started offering formal financial services to millions of previously unbanked customers.

The Savings Conundrum: Lessons from A Pack of Cards

The simple behavior around a pack of cards gives us an enormous amount of insight about how a financial product can be designed to accommodate a quest for surprise whilst saving.

Re-Banking the De-Banked in Mexico

Earlier this year CGAP, in partnership with Bancomer, commissioned IDEO.org, the non-profit arm of the California firm known for its human-centered design methodology, to create a savings product that would meet the needs of low income Mexicans.

What Is Keeping Kenya From Becoming More “Cash Lite”?

A couple of weeks ago, Daryl Collins and her team at BFA introduced granular, intra-day transaction data collected in the summer of 2011 across a sample of 61 urban and rural retail merchants in Kenya. The results starkly showed that cash still dominates the payment transactions in these areas, with mobile money representing being used for not even 1% of transactions. In this blog, they ask the question “What would move more customers and merchants to more cash-lite payment behavior?”

A Better Way to Deliver Aid

To increase the speed of delivery and put decision-making power into the hands of beneficiaries, the international aid community is transitioning away from the distribution of in-kind goods to the direct transfer of cash payments to assist those in need. The Visa Innovation Grants Program is taking this one step further by supporting innovation and implementation of electronic payments.

The Implications of Data Tracking on Financial Inclusion

This debate over internet data tracking has important implications for financial inclusion and in particular new channels like mobile banking that are expanding access to finance to consumers in low-access markets. Some see the end business model for these channels as providing low-cost or free services to consumers, making their profits instead by selling their data to companies looking to offer these consumers tailored products. In this post, we present two different viewpoints from Rafe Mazer, who focuses on financial consumer protection, and Sarah Rotman, who focuses on product innovation.

From Social Protection to Financial Inclusion and Beyond

The idea that linking social protection payments to financial inclusion initiatives can reduce poverty is gaining increasing traction. In February of this year, CGAP published a paper on Social Cash Transfers and Financial Inclusion. In April, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held a workshop examining the potential of financially-inclusive electronic G2P payments. One of the core goals of the Better Than Cash Alliance, launched in September by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, UN Capital Development Fund, USAID, and Visa Inc., is to reduce the reliance on cash for G2P and other transfers in order to improve the effectiveness of aid.

Is M-PESA Replacing Cash in Kenya?

How far away is Kenya from the goal of cash-lite? Between July and August 2011, Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) conducted an intensive field study within an urban and a rural pilot area to study the mode and size of intra-day cash flows at the customer-to-merchant interface and the merchant-to-supplier interface. This research finds that despite Kenya’s reputation for being a leader in mobile money, cash is still king.