Mobile money in Mogadishu: a new way of strengthening food security
“Receiving mobile money… allows me to purchase what I want from every shop, and I can pay school fees, water and electricity bills while I am at home,” says 49-year old Amina Ismail Omar, sitting outside her home in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to watch her children as they play. “[It] has also reduced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“One of the main advantages of this service is that I can transfer money and it is secure,” adds 28-year old Shamsa Shanow Ahmed, resting beneath the shade of a tree with four of her six children. “I am the only one who knows my pin number.”
Amina and Shamsa are some of the first people in Somalia to receive assistance from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) using mobile money, meaning that funds can be sent to their phones electronically without them needing to collect physical cash or vouchers.
Like many women in Somalia, both Amina and Shamsa have lost their husbands, forced to flee their homes with their children — there is extensive internal displacement in the country, driven by conflict or by natural crises such as floods or droughts — and are struggling to secure the basic necessities for living.
“We have been facing several challenges like lack of food and lack of clean water, and my children have no access to education,” says Amina. “One of the most serious challenges is lack of health care.”
WFP Somalia works to support millions of vulnerable people, like Amina and Shamsa, through interventions such as general food assistance (through either cash or in-kind food), home-grown cash-based school feeding, and social safety nets implemented on behalf of national or local government.
With the support of donors like the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, WFP has been increasingly using cash to deliver assistance where possible, in Somalia and around the world. Compared to the traditional delivery of in-kind food items, cash gives beneficiaries more choice while also providing an important stimulus for local markets. In 2020, WFP Somalia has been further building on the cash assistance model by piloting the use of mobile money.
Mobile money has important advantages for WFP beneficiaries. They no longer need to travel to receive their cash, minimizing security concerns and hugely reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. They don’t need to travel to spend their entitlements, either; mobile money has also been integrated with WFP’s e-Shop digital marketplace, connecting beneficiaries directly with local food suppliers so that they can choose food to buy with their WFP assistance and have it delivered directly to them.
Mobile money also helps ensure that the right assistance reaches the right people and can increase financial inclusion for women. WFP is now working to further expand its use of mobile money, as long as the necessary funding can be secured.
Somalia is an ideal environment to use the technology to help strengthen food security because it is already an essential part of the country’s economy. Mobile money is used for everything from saving money to paying bills; it accounts for a greater value of transactions than cash; and, according to the World Bank, is now used by 73 percent of the overall population.
All of this has already made mobile money a favoured delivery option for people like Amina and Shamsa. “This service helped us a lot,” smiles Amina. “We would like to request WFP to continue this kind of support.”
