Mobile Money Impact: Experiences from the Field

USAID’s mSTAR project aims to increase operational efficiency and productivity across USAID Bangladesh’s agricultural and health portfolios through mobile and electronic payment adoption. Aligned with this objective, mSTAR Bangladesh facilitates quarterly and district-level technical workshops to increase awareness and competence of relevant USAID implementing partners (IPs) on the benefits of using mobile payments. 

The sixth quarterly workshop focused on sharing real experiences of USAID implementing partners using mobile money in their project operations. mSTAR grantees, USAID’s Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) project implemented by Dnet and USAID’s Aquaculture for Income and Nutrition (AIN) project implemented by WorldFish shared their experience of using mobile money in their respective projects. mSTAR grantees shared the challenges faced during the transition and the benefits they have received. The workshop also discussed the Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh report, a recent publication from mSTAR/Bangladesh that describes the state of mobile financial services in Bangladesh, including an overview of the services available, relevant regulations, and the extent to which staff and beneficiaries from select USAID agriculture and health projects are using those services.