Baseline Survey on the Status of Mobile Money Usage by USAID/B IPs

This report presents the key findings from the baseline survey undertaken by the USAID-funded Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project in order to assess the current state of mobile money (MM) usage by USAID/B Implementing Partners (IPs) in Bangladesh. The baseline survey was sent to 47 contacts at 43 USAID/B IPs that were implementing health (n = 31) and agriculture (n =12) projects from April to June 2014. Responses were received from 33 contacts, representing 28 USAID/B IPs (65% of total) and a 36 USAID-funded projects (76% of total), of which 18 are health and 18 are agriculture projects.

This report is organized as follows: after providing an overview of the project background, the methodology for the baseline survey is described. This is followed by an analysis of the current state of IPs’ usage of mobile money within their operations, the different areas in which the IPs are using cash payments, and the reasons for not adopting mobile money payments for those who have not yet done so. This section also includes whether the respondents were aware of mSTAR or not. The report also includes the key challenges that were faced during the baseline survey and recommendations for further utilization of the information collected through the USAID/B IP MM baseline survey.