Mobile Phones

More from the Series

CGD NOTES
E-commerce and Mobile Money for Poverty Reduction in China: Lessons for African Countries
Leah Lynch
and
Chung Tsz Chung
December 21, 2020
Global e-commerce sales surged to US$25.6 trillion in 2018, up 8 percent from 2017. Leading the way are China (US$1.5 trillion), the United States (US$600 billion), and the United Kingdom (US$135 billion) holding the top three spots respectively. Yet Africa, with 17 percent of the world’s population...
Blog Post
The Potential of Assessing Children’s Learning by Phone: An Update
July 16, 2020
In an earlier blog post, we proposed a few lessons from the experience of some members of our team with piloting phone-based assessments in Botswana and from other members with oral assessments from before the pandemic. Now, with more piloting experience and data, we update those lessons.
Blog Post
COVID-19: How Countries Can Use Digital Payments for Better, Quicker Cash Transfers
April 06, 2020
The COVID-19 response amounts to a significant expansion in the scale and scope of direct cash transfers as well as other social assistance—a huge increase in government-to-people (G2P) payments. As we explain in our new report, delivering on these programs will require an enormous increase in ...
Blog Post
How Much Would It Cost to Extend Mobile Coverage to Everyone in Tanzania?
January 21, 2020
Less than 45 percent of the area of Tanzania is covered by any form of cell phone reception. Telecom providers target high-population areas first, so the percentage of the population covered by the cell phone signal is 83 percent. But the problem is that the remaining 17 percent of the population, o...
POLICY PAPERS
Digital Technology and State Capacity in Kenya
Njuguna Ndung’u
August 06, 2019
Following the launch of M-Pesa in 2007, Kenya has emerged as a global leader in the development of mobile money and in increasing rates of financial inclusion. This paper shows how M-Pesa’s success has led to a series of endogenous innovations that have shaped Kenya’s digital space, plac...
Blog Post
And the World Leader in Mobile Money Adoption is… (Not Where You Think)
May 14, 2019
The story of the m-Pesa’s penetration in the Kenya economy is a well-trodden yet exciting path into what feels like a taste of a cashless future. All that said, Kenya is not the country with the most adults holding mobile money accounts. It’s Bangladesh.
CGD NOTES
Primary Education Stipends in Bangladesh: Do Mothers Prefer Digital Payments over Cash?
May 14, 2019
Bangladesh, a country of 165 million people bordering India and Myanmar, is undergoing a rapid economic and social transformation. Bangladesh is also witnessing a digital revolution.