Bridging the Digital Divide to Scale Up the COVID-19 Recovery by Patrick Njoroge and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu publicado por IMF (11/2020)
“Digitalization has in the past few years enabled developing countries in particular to leapfrog on financial inclusion. Countries like Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania have made great advances in connecting their citizens to financial systems by leveraging on mobile phone technology.
As the world has grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, with closing of borders, curfews, lockdowns and other movement restrictions, digitalization has come to the rescue. Online shopping and entertainment, digital financial services, virtual meetings and events have taken center stage in lives and livelihoods globally.
Digital solutions
Policymakers at the onset of the pandemic took emergency measures to support and facilitate digital activities. The Central Bank of Kenya waived charges and expanded the limit for low-value mobile money transactions. This led to a significant increase in both value and number of transactions, mostly of $10 or less, helping to cushion the most vulnerable households, and attracting more than 1.6 million additional customers. In Rwanda, all charges were waived in March. By the end of April 2020, the weekly value of all kinds of mobile money transactions increased by 450 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
Businesses also moved quickly to leverage the power of digital technology. In China, Ant Group partnered with more than 100 banks to launch the Contactless Loans initiative to help small and medium enterprises recover from COVID-19. In Brazil, the central bank is launching PIX, an instant-payments system expected to become widely available this month. In India, Riskcovry, a Mumbai-based start-up, introduced a coronavirus insurance policy for businesses that want to offer their employees hospitalization and lost-wages coverage.
Fortuitously, for the last 18 months, as part of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals , we explored how digitalization can help tackle the world’s most urgent development challenges. COVID-19 only amplified its mandate. The pandemic has hindered the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in health and education. Getting back on track will be imperative to achieve a global recovery…”
