50 nations promised cash to fight Covid-19, but few, like India and Bangladesh, are doing it right. India’s trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and mobile communications — or JAM — can work wonders if it is used extensively to reform citizen–state engagement.

While the current pandemic induced crisis is yet to reach its peak, and is leaving a trail of personal and economic destruction, a new landscape should be expected  to emerge when the dust settles.

Governments and startups on the continent are implementing measures to shift a greater volume of payment transactions toward mobile money and away from cash. It’s an option facilitated by the boom in fintech that’s occurred in Africa over the last decade. 

SEEP reminds the financial inclusion community about the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards, a guide for practitioners on improving economic assistance for disaster recovery and can also provide some guidance on what to do in the context of COVID-19.

The government’s decision to stop issuing permits to migrant workers will have significant consequences for the country, where economic activities are driven by remittances, experts say.

Paytm, India’s largest digital payments and financial services company has entered into a strategic partnership with Indian Oil Corporation Limited to enable digital transactions across its fueling stations as well as LPG cylinder delivery ecosystem.

The measures include a moratorium of one year on all principal repayments as well as interest rate reduction on all applicable CBN intervention facilities from nine to five percent per annum for one year effective 1 March, 2020.

The loan will support the development of financial technology and inclusion in Indonesia and will will provide budget support for Indonesia’s reform agenda in three key policy areas.