AudiencScapes

InterMedia Senior Project Manager Giovanna Monteverde on a recent research trip to Haiti visited with a Digicel Tcho Tcho mobile money agent to find out more about this new service. Giovanna also observed the great difficulty most Haitians must go through to perform everyday financial transactions.

by Giovanna Monteverde, InterMedia Senior Project Manager

Mobile money in Haiti remains very much in its infancy. We all know that, even before last year’s massive earthquake, financial services of all types were spread very thin. My recent trip to Port au Prince put into perspective the difficulty most Haitians face just to conduct what we consider everyday financial transactions. The trip also gave me an opportunity to speak with mobile money agents about how these services work for the average user.

On one of my first days in Port au Prince I asked where I might find an ATM. The typical response was laughter and a comment along the lines of “good luck finding one.” One of my local colleagues said that there are only five ATMs in Port au Prince and most are almost always out of service. Actual bank locations are of little help either for the average person.

First of all, there aren’t many: even before the earthquake, on average there were only two brick-and-mortar establishments for every 100,000 people. Second, due to this lack of banking services, people I spoke with reported having to wait in line for 2-3 hours on a regular basis. Finally, the population is overwhelmingly poor. One gentleman told me that there was no reason for him to even open an account because he is living only day to day and it’s extremely difficult to save any money.

The lack of banking locations and high levels of poverty create widespread financial needs that mobile money services could fill. These services are not yet available throughout the country. The two services offered in the country, Digicel’s Tcho Tcho and Voila’s T-Cash, only began signing up users in December 2010.

During my trip, I had the opportunity to speak with a Tcho Tcho network agent about the kinds of transactions users can conduct and how exactly they do so. Click on the screenshot below to watch the video.

Mobile money has the potential to provide Haitians with safer, faster, and (in principle) cheaper ways to transfer money and make purchases, thus making more efficient use of the limited resources at Haitians' disposal.

A flash AudienceScapes survey from January 2011 showed that a large percentage of Haitians, both banked and unbanked, had knowledge of m-mobile money services (link to previous A-Scapes blog). The challenge for Digicel and Voila moving forward is to turn this general knowledge of their services into an understanding by customers and merchants of how it can benefit their everyday lives. If m-money is to reach those most in need of its services in poor and rural areas, it will require m-money providers to not only conduct an extensive information campaign but also train a knowledgeable agent network that can work with population that maybe unfamiliar with ICTs and financial services.

Related Publications:

Audiencescapes Provides Early Glimpse Of Haiti's Mobile Money Era

M-Money in Tanzania: Is it reaching the Poor?

The Role of Media in Humanitarian Crises: Potential Lessons from Haiti

Mobile Apps and Development: Getting from Pilot to Scale