Mobile Money Transfers for Humanitarian Assistance & Development Programming: A Service Provider Perspective

This report summarizes findings from research on how digital payment services providers in Africa have worked with Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) customers to deliver digital payments to their program participants/beneficiaries in the context of providing humanitarian assistance and/or for development programming.

The overall aim is to to understand supply side perspectives on use of Mobile Money Bulk Payments (MMBPs) for humanitarian assistance and development programming in order to build relationships between NGOs and SPs, promote increased use of MMBPs, and identify new approaches and strategies that can lead to smoother deployments.

The research was based on findings gathered through key informant interviews with six digital bulk payment service providers (SPs), including five mobile network operators (MNOs) and one commercial bank, email responses from one SP, and reflections from ELAN members and NetHope staff that have worked in the digital payments space for a number of years.