SWAZILAND proposes mobile money for grant payments

THE Deputy Prime Minister’s office is engaging Swazi MTN with a view to pay social safety nets through mobile money.

The DPM’s office reported that an assessment of existing  payment systems in the country was made and based on banking, technological infrastructure and analysis on the transaction costs, MTN Mobile Money has been proposed to make cash transfers to the beneficiaries of the  orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) pilot cash  transfer scheme. 

The cash transfer system for OVC is a social safety net project under the DPM’s office.

According to the DPM’s report, a draft contract was prepared and shared with stakeholders for their input and after getting necessary feedback, the contract was sent to the Attorney General’s office for review.  

The DPM said the AG approved the contract with the service provider. He said the contract suggested zero charges on the transaction costs of sending money to the beneficiaries but there were tariffs to be borne by the beneficiaries for withdrawing the cash from the mobile money agents. 

Challenges

However, the DPM’s office has identified some challenges in the payment process.  These are with regards to the fact that some areas of the country do not have access to the MTN network particularly those areas close to the borders with South Africa.  They also highlighted that robbery was an issue as some shops have refused to provide the mobile money service. 

According to the DPM’s report, 1 382 households have enrolled to benefit in the programme. It says during the enrolment, it was gathered that approximately 55 percent households did not have personal identity numbers (PIN), ID documents and birth certificates for all children. 

The households said the reason for not having the documents was due to unavailability of funds to get them. It was also gathered that some of the poor households provided false information during the enrolment. 

The DPM’s office now has to clean the register and this process was expected to be completed by end of April 2015. 

SOURCE:OBSERVER