New Telegraph

‘Digitisation of cash transfers, key to financial inclusion in Nigeria’

A joint report from FSD Africa, Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) and the GSMA, and conducted by Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA), has revealed that a gradual transition from physical cash transfers to digital would improve the recipients’ usage. Although this transition will not be immediately possible everywhere due to limited network connectivity, low mobile phone ownership levels, and low literacy rates among other barriers, the report outlines different opportunities for social protection and humanitarian actors, and the private sector, to work together to support increased access to digital payments for poor and vulnerable recipients of assistance.

The joint report, “Opportunities and Barriers to Digitising Social Protection and Humanitarian Payments in Nigeria”, highlighted the opportunities within digitisation of cash transfers and presented a roadmap for its actualisation. The study reinforces the need to create an ecosystem in which recipients could eventually access cash transfers on a permanent digital wallet through their mobile phones, leading invariably to multichoice usage, which they can then use to transact to meet all of their needs and help to reduce reliance on physical cash. The report offers recommendations to improve Nigeria’s capacity to deliver digital payments to the poor.

It points out the need for humanitarian and social protection organizations to work in partnership with the Government and financial service providers to support an enabling environment to reach last mile recipients, the importance of coordination to promote a more cohesive use of cash transfers wherever appropriate, and efforts to better inform the development and extension of relevant services by payment providers wherever feasible.

Read Previous

Heifer expands crop insurance as rice farmers get protection

Read Next

FCTA empowers 300 rural women

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *