12
vritti
March 2020
Changing Lives
Post Disaster Payments and Fund Collection
The most direct use of mobile money is to
facilitate post disaster payments. Mobile money
can be used by governments and NGOs to
quickly and cost-effectively disburse money
to the people affected by the disaster. It can
also be used to quickly pool funds from
people during emergencies.
Social cash transfer to drought-
stricken Households - airtel
money, malawi
Between 2014 and 2016, over 2 million
Malawians faced food shortages due to
droughts and erratic rains that destroyed
crops. The INGO consortium, in collaboration
with Airtel Malawi ran an emergency social
cash transfer program with an aim to mitigate
the impact of famine. Under the program, the
INGO consortium provided financial aid to
hunger-stricken households via the Airtel
Money service. In 2016, they disbursed more
than MWK 40 billion ($54 million), enabling
250,000 Malawians to buy food and meet
their nutritional requirements. By transferring
funds monthly to the beneficiaries, cash
transfers not only meet the immediate needs
of households, but also enable people to spend
money and make purchases, simultaneously
injecting growth into local economies.
Pooling relief funds for cyclone-hit
people – EcoCash, Zimbabwe
Cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe on March 15,
2019; bringing heavy rains that led to floods,
killing 344 people and impacting 270,000.
EcoCash crowd-funded and collected
donations from Zimbabweans citizens and
the Diaspora. Within hours of hitting of
cyclone on March 15, EcoCash created a
digital wallet for the relief fund with Biller
Code 320041 and launched it on next day
March 16. The relief fund was created as a
biller in the system and Zimbabweans can
donate using this Biller Code just like they
pay a bill. Zimbabwean Diaspora could
donate though EcoCash Diaspora
(international remittance) service. For this
EcoCash created a relief fund digital wallet
with mobile number +263786321671.
Consumers can send money instantly to this
number in the same simple and familiar way
they remit money to their family and friends.
RTGS$ 239,643 was collected by EcoCash
crowd-funding. The money was used for
search and rescue operations and the
purchase of food supplies for the impacted.