Mobile money agents are now established as key enablers of digital payments and financial inclusion, positioning them as an indispensable part of the retail financial services distribution ecosystem. However, most mobile money agents are not adopting digital tools like point-of-sales (POS) devices and smartphones. This is costly for both agents and customers, as agents miss out on potential revenue streams from offering more advanced services like banking and insurance
products and customers are unable to access valuable financial services through the high-density mobile money agent network. We propose a pilot intervention to incentivize mobile money agents to adopt digital tools and access working capital, which would enable them to become banking agents and offer formal banking services to their customers. Given this background, we plan to examine the impact of providing POS devices and working capital to mobile money agents.
To assess the effectiveness of such an intervention, a number of empirical outcomes could be measured, such as the economic, operational, and behavioural changes in the services provided by mobile money agents. The goal is to establish the commercial viability and success of this intervention.
Objectives:
1. Examine the feasibility of the proposed intervention and understand how agents respond to the digitalization of their operations.
2. Evaluate the potential of the research design towards a full-randomized controlled trial (RCT)
3. Strengthen relationships between mobile money agents and the Ghanaian financial sector through the expansion of services available in the retail finance ecosystem.
Category
Year
Institution