Massive Government to Person (G2P) payment programmes have become a vehicle for financial inclusion and a gateway for the development of robust payments infrastructure that bolster the provision of financial services to households at the bottom of the pyramid. Improvements in the way payments are posted, processed and disbursed can drastically reduce transactions costs and increase product and service delivery to beneficiaries. An outstanding example is the case of Bolsa Familia in Brazil; by switching from cash payments to the more efficient digital payments, transaction costs reduced from 15% to 3% of the value of payments disbursed.

Thanks to the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) social cash transfer programme and the reinforced strategy to use electronic payments,  one out of three adults in South Africa is now financially included. The introduction of the new payment system not only brought more South Africans into using formal financial services, it also reduced fraud, corruption cases and the burden of receiving payments for beneficiaries. 

In order to address the opportunities and challenges of implementing a robust G2P payments system, the UNCDF programme Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) - in collaboration with Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ) and the Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) - is organizing a comprehensive study visit to South Africa for Government officials responsible for the implementation of G2P payments programmes from Benin, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia.  

This study visit will act as an intensive learning event to enable government participants improve, redesign and implement an efficient and robust G2P payment programme that can extend financial inclusion and improve the welfare of low income households. Participants will be exposed to the SASSA social payments programme: lessons learned, best practices and regulatory approaches to G2P payment systems. Institutional interaction and peer to peer learning amongst participants with the South African Reserve Bank, the National Treasury, Grindrod Bank and the SASSA programme will promote south to south learning and generate an exchange of experiences aimed at gaining insight in shifting G2P payments from cash to digital channels.

Stay tuned and follow this learning event live on twitter @UNCDFMM4P

November 23^rd – 27^th, 2015 Pretoria, South Africa.

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About MM4P

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) is a programme launched by the UN Capital Development Fund in partnership with the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation. The programme provides support to branchless and mobile financial services in a select group of LDCs to demonstrate how the correct mix of financial, technical and policy support can build a robust branchless and mobile financial services ecosystem that reaches low income people in LDCs. For more information, please visit www.uncdf.org/mm4p 

For further information, please contact:

Tillman Bruett, Project Manager - Mobile Money for the Poor, mm4p@uncdf.org