Mobile Money Adoption Increased During the Pandemic by 4 Percent: Karandaaz Survey on COVID-19’s Impact on Financial Behavior

Karandaaz held a webinar to share the findings of the recently concluded survey on the impact of COVID-19 on financial behavior in Pakistan. This survey was designed and conducted in partnership with Kantar and is preceded by six waves of the Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) Survey. The FII survey is a nationally representative survey gauging financial inclusion and access to and use of mobile money and other digital financial service in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda.

In Pakistan, the last FII survey was implemented prior to the COVID-associated lockdown in March 2020. Subsequently, this survey was conducted from October 20 to December 30, 2020 to measure changes in financial inclusion compared to the FII Wave 6 survey implemented earlier in the year. Survey findings on the impact of COVID-19 on financial behavior show that while financial inclusion in Pakistan increased from 21 percent of adults pre-pandemic to 25 percent in late 2020, the change was driven entirely by mobile money adoption.