The Role of DFS Agents During the COVID-19 Crisis

Due to COVID-19, many donor organisations are looking to replicate reactions from elsewhere in the world by organizing massive G2P payment programs to alleviate missing incomes and they are looking to DFS and mobile money to execute these plans.

This report looks at the on-the-ground situation for mobile money and banking agents in Kenya by using near-live data from the Caribou Data platform combined with MicroSave Consulting’s extensive contacts within agent networks. We hope to contribute to the success of these donor programs by understanding how agents are coping with lockdowns, social distancing, and hygiene as well as how their cash flow is changing, whether liquidity is becoming an issue and what their experience is being at the physical frontline of a digital banking system during a pandemic.