Digital payments

Partnering With the Private Sector to Extend Digital Financial Services to the Unbanked

This GIZ and Amarante Consulting study shares learnings and challenges with mobile wallet uptake among Syrian refugees, women and unbanked Jordanians.

Marks & Spencer Joins the Better Than Cash Alliance on International Women’s Day

This International Women’s Day, Marks & Spencer (M&S) is joining the Better Than Cash Alliance to help advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Testing the Waters: Digital Payments for Water and Sanitation

Water providers are shifting to digital payments to reduce expenses and streamline delivery. In this report, CGAP and GSMA share lessons learned from 25 organizations, including the challeng…

Cash usage behaviour and its implication for digital payments: A case of Ghana and Nigeria's smallholder cassava value chain

Education programs and awareness campaigns can help improve mobile money usage among smallholder cassava farmers in Nigeria and Ghana. Better agent network and incentives may help too. Read …

Using digital tools to grow africulture and financial inclusion in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a sole mobile network provider and a banking sector that is closed to foreign ownership. Does that make it easy for the government to take a rural-first approach to digitization? Learn about it more in this USAIDFeed The Future brief that also mentions the Alliance.

How UN organizations can boost their impact

In a new report, the Better Than Cash Alliance shows how improved digitization and harmonization can help UN agencies and partners make an even greater impact.

Is cash still relevant?

2018 highlights!

Here are highlights on how our global partnership ignited progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through shifting to digital payments.

Cash Digitization: UN Collaboration, Coordination, and Harmonization Opportunities

Cash Digitization: UN Collaboration, Coordination, and Harmonization Opportunities

New digitization study recommends strengthening cash assistance collaboration across UN agencies & partners, to improve coordination and harmonization.

Mobile banking in the government-to-person payment sector for financial inclusion in Pakistan

Through an interpretive case study of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in Pakistan, this paper critically examines mobile banking usage by women beneficiaries and technology’s effects on the institutional properties of their households.

Mobile Money and Financial Inclusion in the Papua New Guinea Resource Regions

This study investigates whether strengthening mobile money ecosystems around PNG’s resource regions can improve the distribution of compensation and benefits payments for local communities; Enhance social license for resources companies; and catalyze financial inclusion efforts.

Mapping the Merchant's Mind: An Analysis of Digital Payment Behaviors by Fixed Store Merchants in Jaipur

A year and a half post demonetization, only about 5% of India’s ~60 million MSMEs own digital acceptance devices. This report provides a deeper context and recommendations on small business profiles, infrastructure, needs, behaviors, and perceptions.

Interoperability of Digital Finance in Bangladesh: Challenges and Taking-Off Options

The paper suggests a pragmatic approach for Bangladesh to financially include the underserved through Digital financial services (DFS) by promoting interoperability.

Household finance and economic development

This chapter provides an overview of financial inclusion around the world and discusses the empirical evidence on how the use of formal financial services significantly contribute to inclusive growth and economic development.

Fintech for promoting financial inclusion in Vietnam: fact findings and policy implications

This paper analyzes the legal framework and actual operations of fintech in Vietnam, assesses the opportunities and challenges and proposes recommendations for better application of fintech for promoting financial inclusion.

Get in the fast lane through digital payments

In this 4-part blog series, we examine key aspects of the transportation sector: tolling, urban transit, and ride-sharing with a focus on emerging economies.

New Key to Help Unlock the Power of Digital Payments

Across the global policy community, the jury is now in about the power of digital payments to drive financial inclusion, particularly for women and the poor; improve efficiency and transpare…

Senegal’s Prime Minister launches new payment digitization agenda

The Prime Minister made this announcement at the Council of Ministers last week, where he presented a new study on payment digitization to His Excellency the President of the Republic, Macky Sall.

An Introduction to Digital Financial Services (DFS)

Digital Financial Services (DFS) is a relatively new, low-cost means of digital access to transactional financial services. Often termed ‘mobile money’ or ‘mobile financial services,’ DFS is…