Report launched adds evidence on the potential of government-to-person payments to drive adoption of digital finance.

There are 80,000 government employees in Sierra Leone who receive salaries directly in their bank accounts. Most of them also have registered mobile money accounts.

Can insights about their financial lives help build a viable business case for digital financial services? Can their uptake of mobile money – and digital finance in general – create network effects and therefore catalyze the financial inclusion of other underserved communities in Sierra Leone? We think that the response to both questions is Yes.

These insights can inform strategies and use cases that the Government of Sierra Leone and UNCDF can develop to promote digital finance in the West African country, in line with the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2017-2020.

UNCDF supported a financial lives survey to understand government employees’ spending behavior, as well as their awareness and perceptions around digital finance. The survey provides not only insights on current and potential salaried customers, but also identifies pilot use cases that could increase adoption of digital finance in Sierra Leone.

The study findings and recommendations are presented in the report ‘The Financial Lives of Government Employees: The Potential of Digital Finance in Sierra Leone’, launched today in occasion of the DFS Working Group in Freetown.