Mobile Money Instead of Cash in West Africa to Help Slow Spread of Coronavirus

More and more people across West Africa have been switching from cash to mobile money to potentially help slow the spread of COVID-19, as providers make it easier – and cheaper – to go digital.

Across the continent, mobile money providers are reducing and waiving transaction fees, and even lowering restrictions to signing up. For example, Ghana’s central bank is allowing all mobile phone subscribers to open a mobile wallet for daily transfers of up to around $170 without providing any additional documentation, such as ID or proof of address.

“It is an encouraging thing to see that in these times, when we really need to find ways to include the maximum number of people, that central banks are taking that question out of the way,” says Sabine Mensah, regional digital lead for the United Nations Capital Development Fund, to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Lowering restrictions not only particularly helps those excluded from the formal financial system – such as women, the young and the poor – open accounts, but can also help tackle the economic impact of the pandemic, according to Alfred Hannig, executive director of a global network of policymakers called the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.