Supporting Digital Payments in Cash Programming

This report is intended to assist the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and other humanitarian actors to leverage digital payment systems such as mobile money in their humanitarian cash transfers. FSD Africa commissioned Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA) to examine the challenges and opportunities of providing digital financial services (DFS) in Sudan, particularly to displaced populations and low-income segments. SIA also leveraged the Connectivity Usage and Needs Assessment (CoNUA) data by GSMA to conduct additional analysis on beneficiary digital readiness, and assess the key challenges stopping them from either accessing or using their mobile devices in more diverse and confident ways.

Overall, this exercise aimed to improve cash assistance programs in Sudan and to provide guidance on improving access to DFS. Based on the analysis of the key barriers for both the supply and demand side, SIA came up with recommendations for how the humanitarian sector can help improve access to financial services and strengthen the underlying digital payments infrastructure.