Togo’s Digital Response to COVID-19
Authors: Cina Lawson, Minister of Posts, Digital Economy and Technological Innovation, Government of Togo; Shegun Adjadi Bakari, Senior Advisor to the President of Togo; Beatriz Vasconcellos, Master in Public Administration and International Development 2021, Harvard Kennedy School
Editors’ Note: On October 1, 2020, the Ministry of Posts, Digital Economy and Technological Innovation (MPENIT) was renamed to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation (MENTD).
Background
Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, countries had to act fast to provide social security payments to workers. In developing countries such as Togo, which figures among the top 10 percent of poorest countries in the world and where over 50 percent of the population lives under US$1.25 per day, acting fast while maintaining physical distancing was crucial to prevent a rise in the national poverty rate.
The highlight of Togo’s digital response has been NOVISSI, a mobile cash transfer program that distributed nearly US$20 million to 15 percent of the Togolese population in three months. It was designed entirely in-house and launched within 10 days. This experience provides important insights into how to leverage existing databases and capabilities for a simple, transparent, and inclusive solution to bolster social protection.
Togo’s success may be attributed to five key enablers: 1) the existence of a reliable biometric database of voters, 2) the ability to leverage an existing set of technologies and skills, 3) the inclusive design of the program and the popularity of mobile payments, 4) close collaboration with telecom operators, and 5) transparent and accountable governance. In particular, Togo’s example demonstrates the benefits of instituting a digital identity for better targeting and service delivery, and suggests that Togo will enjoy even more success in the digital government space with its forthcoming launch of a new universal digital ID. This article examines how these enablers allowed a country with a GDP of US$679 per capita to quickly and successfully deploy a robust program.
A Brief Introduction to Togo
Togo is a West African nation located along the Gulf of Guinea with a population of 7.8 million people. Despite its small size, Togo is a highly diverse country, boasting over 40 ethnic groups, at least four widely spoken languages, and three main religious groups. This diversity poses additional challenges for the Ministry of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation (MENTD), which is obligated to ensure that all its initiatives equally serve people across the various socio-cultural groups that make up the nation.
Map of Togo
Since the turn of the 20th century, the country has seen a revolution in digitization. In 2013, when the current MENTD leadership took office, most of the initiatives were constrained by inadequate electricity coverage, since only 39 percent of the population had access to it. While electricity expansion is still a main focus for Togo, the progress made over the past seven years has allowed the ministry to aim at more ambitious goals (for more detail, see the 2018–2022 National Digital Planning Strategy).
Togo’s Success Story
What Is NOVISSI?
NOVISSI is a cash transfer program designed as a response to COVID-19. It targets the most vulnerable informal workers whose revenues have been disrupted or lost due to the restrictive government measures implemented to curb the spread of the pandemic. From registration to the money transfer, enrolling in NOVISSI can be completed in a few minutes:
NOVISSI Enrollment Process
NOVISSI’s Main Features
- Developed completely in-house
- Entirely digital onboarding via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) menu
- Fortnightly government-to-person (G2P) direct transfer via mobile money to a beneficiary (monthly total equates to 35 percent of minimum wage)
- Use of the voter’s ID card for verification of identity (covers ~93 percent of the adult population)
- Individual and voluntary enrollment
- Simplified USSD registration form requiring only three pieces of information (voter card number, NSF number, surname)
- Target by occupation, location, and gender
- Women receive a higher payout than men (US$20/month vs. US$18/month)
- Support funds are paid every fortnight to ensure that families are guaranteed some basic income throughout the month
When the COVID-19 crisis hit Togo in April 2020, President Faure Gnassingbé announced drastic measures including a daily curfew in the capital city of Lomé and surrounding areas, restricted access to Togo’s urban centers, border closures, and physical distancing policies. These public health measures adversely affected livelihoods, especially those of informal workers, who account for more than 90 percent of the Togolese population. The highest concern was the threat of an increase in the poverty rate, an area in which the country had made considerable progress in recent decades. Therefore, there was a need for large-scale cash transfers in urban, peri-urban, and border areas to workers in the informal sector. Using digital tools was imperative to act quickly and safely while maintaining physical distancing.
Taking advantage of high mobile penetration and the recently updated voter registry, MENTD, in cooperation with other ministries, launched the cash-transfer program in just 10 days. In addition to securing a minimum income for those most affected by the crisis, the main objective was to build a transparent, 100-percent traceable, and 100-percent digital process that would be accessible to the most vulnerable in the population.
From April to June, NOVISSI distributed approximately US$20 million to 15 percent of the Togolese population (35 percent of the population registered for the program), with 71 percent of the funds disbursed to women. The government leveraged existing internal capabilities to make significant gains in this endeavor. What were the main enablers of this achievement and why did it take a crisis for these changes to be implemented?
Key Enablers of Togo’s Success
Togo’s successful implementation of the NOVISSI cash transfer program can be attributed to five key enablers. Together, they allowed for a speedy and robust rollout of the program in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
1. NOVISSI’s success was facilitated by the existence of a reliable biometric population registry
Had elections not taken place in February 2020, it would not have been possible to design and execute such an impactful program. This is because, in Togo, voting in elections is mandatory and voters had been required to update their voter ID information as recently as December 2019, coinciding with when the emergence of the pandemic, the administration found itself with a valuable tool: a reliable and updated database covering 93 percent of the adult population.
This biometric database carried the most important attributes: name; address; and, for the vast majority of voters, their profession. Occupation was an important identifier that would allow for filtering and targeting informal workers. In contrast, the national ID database proved surprisingly inferior since only 14 percent of the population had one. Moreover, it did not carry reliable information about the holder’s occupation or physical address. In the end, Togolese officials were able to capitalize on the up-to-date voter registration data to distribute payments through NOVISSI.
2. The platform was developed in-house by leveraging existing technical capabilities and skills, through trust and a common vision
When Togo’s president challenged the ministers to design a cash transfer program as quickly as possible, it was evident that there was no time to rely on external solutions — there was no time to explain the Togolese context to outsiders or to integrate new developers into the team.
Developing the program in-house presented a risk as it was the first time a large-scale cash transfer program like NOVISSI was being implemented. MENTD’s only previous experience with targeting a population group in this way was in 2017 when it designed a USSD platform to provide subsidies to crop farmers. However, that program was substantially different from NOVISSI, which required targeting specific groups of unknown people who then voluntarily enrolled to receive immediate financial support.
MENTD had also never built a platform so quickly, and could only dedicate a team of three developers to work on NOVISSI. However, everyone was driven by a strong sense of purpose and able to keep motivation high by sharing a common vision: to help millions of people who urgently needed it. MENTD also wanted to set a new standard for the future — that all of Togo’s public policies and associated money disbursements would be transparent. Success with NOVISSI would set a precedent that future public expenditures also had to be traceable.
3. The process and design aimed to be inclusive and usable
In a country where 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and access to the internet is still inadequate, reaching the most vulnerable residents required deliberate planning. For this reason, the team decided that the means of payment should leverage mobile phones and mobile payments, which are used by 82 percent and 62 percent of the population, respectively.
The second part of the design was the enrollment process. Since 40 percent of the population does not have access to the internet, MENTD needed to design an offline process. The choice to go with USSD technology was unanimous — it is easy to use and only requires dialing a sequence of numbers on any basic mobile phone. It does not require an internet connection and works with just a 2G signal. The USSD form also needed to be brief to allow for a smooth user experience. Initially, the registration form asked the applicant six questions, but in the end, a shorter form that collected only three pieces of information (name, voter ID, and NSF number) was determined to be more secure and provide a better user experience.
Another challenge was making sure that people who did not own a mobile phone or who needed assistance to sign on would be able to register or cash out without having to gather in large numbers in person. For this reason, NOVISSI leveraged the Post Office’s network of agents, who would wear reflective vests with both the NOVISSI and Post Office logos. The Post Office agents supplemented the existing network of mobile money distributors in the country, who assist people looking to convert mobile money into cash. This was the least digital feature of the NOVISSI program, but it went a long way to bring people closer to mobile money services in general.
Lastly, to make people aware of the digital process and its benefits, there was an outreach campaign over radio, the most popular means of communication in Togo. Most Togolese have at least one radio, and informal workers are normally within earshot of one throughout their day. Tutorials delivered through radio advertisements were targeted to 35 broadcasters nationwide in five languages, and acted as an effective channel of mass communication, especially with the targeted group of vulnerable informal workers. Using radio was also a strategic way to map users’ satisfaction, as the collaboration with the broadcasters informed the NOVISSI team of the technical issues and users’ perceptions of the program. This enabled prompt feedback and agile adaptations.
4. The popularity of mobile money and the collaboration with its operators allowed for speedy scalability
Mobile payments have become popular in Togo, with more than 4.7 million mobile money users, accounting for 62 percent of the population. Mobile money is accessible via USSD code, which works on any mobile phone even in areas with poor network coverage. NOVISSI was the first time the government used mobile money to deliver G2P transfers at scale. The population’s familiarity with mobile transactions and the availability of an extensive distributor network played a role in the program’s success, since people did not need to travel far to cash out or use the funds.
A key factor in the operation was the relationship with the country’s two mobile money operators. The government actively sought to maintain a good relationship with both, inviting them to collaborate on the program. Together, the parties agreed to eliminate transfer tariffs so the money could be received without fees. MENTD also integrated its systems with the mobile money operators, allowing for the first payment to automatically result in the opening of a mobile money account for the beneficiary if the phone number indicated they did not already have one. This collaborative approach was an important asset to guarantee operational efficiency and an agile approach to problem-solving.
5. A deliberate effort to make governance transparent and accountable
In the interest of transparency and good governance, the payments made through the NOVISSI platform and mobile money operators are reconciled on a daily basis to ensure that they can be traced from source to destination and to ensure financial integrity. MENTD outsourced this reconciliation process to Ernst & Young, an independent auditing firm. This mechanism was deliberately designed to instill public trust in the NOVISSI program. It was also critical to prove that all the funds set aside for use within the program were used for the intended purposes. This allowed donors and partners to feel confidence in NOVISSI based on clear proof of financial probity determined through a process devoid of political influence.
Technology is only one part of the equation. Galvanizing public support and easing frustrations around such a new service depends on excellent customer care. MENTD set up a toll-free contact center which, at peak operation, runs for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This service allowed MENTD to provide remote assistance and to gather essential feedback, which was sent to the technical and outreach teams. Improvements to the system were made rapidly based on this established feedback loop. The feedback received through the call center fed into the radio outreach campaign, with the most frequently asked questions discussed during talk shows in multiple languages. Social media was also used to channel information to locals and the international community about transactions made, people enrolled, and other updates. This further boosted transparency and public confidence at home and overseas.
Why Did It Take a Crisis to Leverage MENTD’s Capabilities?
Togo succeeded because it relied on its existing technical capabilities to deploy a completely new service. As digital service groups think about how to adopt some of the learnings, it is important to ask what had been constraining this potential before the crisis.
1. In regular times, skepticism gets in the way of digital transformations
Togo had considered using mobile payments to deliver social benefits for several years. But since digital solutions are still often viewed as inaccessible, it was thought that these solutions would not be well received by low-income groups. This crisis proved that this assumption was wrong. The success of NOVISSI has shown that when you design something well people will find ways to leverage it and reap the benefits.
2. When there is too much time to make a decision, there is time to propose several solutions and more innovative and riskier ones tend to be neglected
Whenever there is an important problem to be tackled at a national level, each ministry or stakeholder wants things to be a certain way. When given time, each of them does their own research and comes up with a preferred idea. The usual problem is that it is hard to coordinate a single infrastructure solution across several government bodies, especially if the proposal seems riskier and less traditional. In this crisis, when the president asked for a solution as soon as possible, only the digital team had the capability to deliver quickly. Even though the NOVISSI design seemed adventurous, it was the only one that could potentially address the problems with the urgency required.
3. Experience matters
Learning from failures over the past several years allowed MENDT to become more efficient. Today, MENDT knows what works and what does not, and is able to address issues in fresh ways.
Crisis contexts force governments to make big bets, take risks, and be more efficient. Despite the tragic consequences of COVID-19, MENDT’s response to the pandemic has allowed Togo and other countries to permanently unlock their digital potential.
