Catalyzing financial inclusion: Using incentives to promote mobile money use in Ethiopia

Daniel Gilligan (), Sylvan Herskowitz, Shalini Roy and Alan de Brauw

No 2295, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Mobile money can be a vehicle for improving financial access, particularly among disadvantaged populations. For mobile money systems to play this role, though, members of disadvantaged groups must both enroll in and begin to use mobile money systems. In this paper, we describe a randomized trial conducted in collaboration with a bank in Somali region, Ethiopia, that attempted to stimulate use among recent mobile money enrollees in areas near refugee camps. We provide one group with a small transfer to their mobile money account and another group is told they will receive a small transfer if they first make three transactions of any type within a promotional period. The unconditional transfer induces a 9.3 percentage point increase in customers making at least one transaction, while the conditional transfer has no significant effect. The effect is larger among men, but there is evidence that it also induces use among women.

Keywords: access to finance; refugees; gender; digital technology; currencies; finance; mobile phones; Eastern Africa; Africa; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fle, nep-mon and nep-pay
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2295

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