Digital payments

What explains low adoption of digital payment technologies? Evidence from small-scale merchants in Jaipur, India

New research from India states that low adoption of digital payments among small retailers is not a result of supply-side barriers, such as affordability and availability. It is due to deman…

How one platform connects cities and boosts small businesses

How can platform approaches drive the digitization of cities? Learn how CIVICO and Accion are helping customers and small businesses, in Bogota, Mexico City, and Santiago, connect and transact.

Digital money: A journey worth taking

What four factors determine the digital money readiness of an economy? What measures can our member governments take to improve their ability to adopt digital payments widely? Read the lates…

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.

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.

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.

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…

Fintech for Financial Inclusion: A Framework for Digital Financial Transformation-A Report to the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI)

The paper outlines potential for growth for FinTech for financial inclusion while emphasising on the need for regulatory approaches , citing some successful cases from India , Kenya and China.

The Impact of Formal Savings on Salaried Workers’ Spending and Borrowing in Eastern Ghana

This J-PAL study looks at the impact of commitment savings linked to electronic salary payments. While the results varied for different users, the research highlights the importance of using…

Bridging the Digital Divide and Supporting Increased Digital Trade: Scoping Study

The global economy is experiencing important technological shifts, with the rise of digital technology a key driver. This can be seen today in the rapid growth of the digital economy, broadl…

Young women key to digital payments adoption

With 180 million unbanked people, Indonesia is one of the most valuable untapped digital payments markets in the Asia Pacific region. According to a Think with Google paper, women aged 25-34 will be the key to enabling adoption in the country.

Prerequisites to digitizing the agricultural last mile

Building inclusive payment ecosystems in Tanzania and Ghana

At the heart of this financial transformation is the rise of digital payments services through which nearly any individual or business can send or receive money in real time for almost any p…