IFAD is partnering with APS under the PRIME Africa initiative to accelerate the uptake of digital remittance services among remittance recipients, and to remittance-linked microfinance services. The project focusses on rural recipients by increasing last mile agents’ interventions.
Theme: Financial Inclusion
IFAD is partnering with Fidelity Bank Ghana under the PRIME Africa Programme initiative to enable remittance recipients in high-migration rural areas to increase their share of remittances saved in formal bank accounts. By targeting un(der)banked remittance recipients, Fidelity Bank is enabling termination of remittances directly into a savings account. Fidelity is partnering with Viamo to introduce financial education to remittance-receivers through IVR.
IFAD is partnering with Mama Money under the PRIME Africa initiative to maximize the impact of remittances sent by low-income migrants in South Africa to their remittance receiving families in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The project responds to the growing need of migrant workers in South Africa to maximize their net income, and that of their families back home, by receiving money sent at an affordable price. Mama Money’s RemittancePlus account offered to low-income migrants will be expanded to current informal and cash-only senders, providing a low-cost digital remittance product.
The project objective is to address systematic data gaps in LAC remittance markets through collection, analysis and dissemination of market information flows and trends in the region. The LAC section of the web-portal RemitSCOPE 2.0 is expected to be publicly available in August 2024, and will complement the Africa section of the portal.
IFAD is partnering with Stanbic Bank Uganda (SBU) under the PRIME Africa initiative to promote affordable digital remittances in rural Uganda. In 2021, SBU launched a new e-wallet named FlexiPay, with a simplified onboarding process that facilitates un(der)banked clients. Leveraging on this new product, the IFAD project will enable the integration of cross-border remittances into the e-wallet at a cost that is below the market average for the Kenya-to-Uganda and Sweden-to-Uganda remittance corridors. In order to drive the adoption of the e-wallet for rural remittance recipients, the project will advance SBU’s existing strategy with savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) in rural areas, and train their staff in digital and financial literacy through Stanbic Bank Incubator, which will in turn train SACCO customers.
Piloting the launch of innovative financial solutions aimed at enhancing the access and usage of remittance services by Ghanaians in Germany and the Netherlands, and their families back home. The project focusses in adapting its recently-launched app for international remittance offering affordable prices, pioneering Ecobank’s first ever digital financial literacy initiative to strengthen users’ ability to manage remittances and other financial resources and link a gender-sensitive micro-savings product to the existing remittance offering.
IFAD partnered with Qmoney under the PRIME Africa initiative to expand access to The Gambia’s first ever mobile wallet for internatonal remittances among low-income rural remittance families.
The project, implemented by DMAG, supported the PRIME Africa Program by providing remittance and analysis for nine African countries, and developing seven roadmaps for remittance market improvement. DMAG created a comprehensive database, consolidating 160+ indicators across all 54 African nations, that are now publicly avilable through the RemitSCOPE website.
IFAD is partnering with OnAfriq to harness the development benefits of using digital channels to send and receive remittances in five African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, The Gambia and Uganda. OnAfriq will make digital money transfer operators in European ‘sending’ countries, and mobile network operators in African ‘receiving’ countries interoperable in order for customers to initiate remittance online and terminate remittance directly into the recipient’s mobile wallets, with a particular focus on rural beneficiaries.
IFAD is partnering with Credit Bank to expand the financial inclusion of remittance recipients in Kenya and promote affordable remittance services to Kenyan migrants abroad, particularly in Germany and Uganda. This project will enhance Credit Bank’s set of products designed specifically for customers in the diaspora. Credit Bank will offer international remittance transfers at a cost below the market rate through the newly established partnership with RIA. In an effort to expand financial inclusion, particularly in rural areas where most of the financially excluded people are, Credit Bank will partner with Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) to extend the remittance service access.
