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Mobile Wallet User Journeys and Potential Products for Refugees and Women in Jordan (July 2022)

Países
Jordania
+ 1
Fuentes
GIZ
Fecha de publicación
Origen
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Background

Jordan is host to 761,000 refugees and asylum seekers, of whom 675,000 are Syrian. Only 7.5% of refugees in Jordan held bank accounts in 2017, limiting their access to formal financial services such as deposits, loans, and insurance. Among low-income Jordanians, this figure was higher but still low, with less than 20% holding a bank account in 2017. Yet, in the same period, mobile phone usage was high in Jordan, with SIM card penetration at 85%. The expectation was that, with the launch of mobile money in Jordan in 2016, refugees and low-income Jordanians would have greater access to financial services.

However, the uptake of mobile money has been slow. In 2020-2021, there was an increased uptake of electronic mobile wallets (e-wallets) in Jordan, driven in part by the digitalisation of National Aid Fund (NAF) transfers during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, of the 1.5 million registered e-wallets, only about 300,000 were actively used (i.e. used once within the last 90 days) as of December 2021. Furthermore, by the end of 2021, only 28% of e-wallet users were female, and 5.8% were refugees.

When women and refugees receive humanitarian cash assistance or grants for their home businesses via an e-wallet, their current behaviour is often to cash out.
This causes them to miss out on the potential benefits of digital financial services (DFS), such as safely storing money, developing a credit history, accessing new payment channels, securing financing to start a new venture, or insuring themselves to better protect against financial shocks. Existing e-wallet products and services are often not targeted at women and refugees and, thus, do not reflect their needs and circumstances.

From December 2021 to July 2022, GIZ engaged behavioural research and design firm, 17 Triggers, to better understand the current user experience surrounding e-wallets, as well as the barriers and motivations that women and refugees face in using e-wallets. Using learnings from research, the project team designed and tested prototypes for potential new products and services that could better align with the financial needs and behaviours of women and refugees in Jordan. The resulting product concepts and recommendations for implementation are shared in this report.