E-payment instruments and welfare: The case of Zimbabwe

Munacinga Simatele
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Abstract

The literature shows that electronic payments are key to improving financial inclusion and achieving global development goals such as the United Nation’s (UNs) Sustainable Development Goals. The benefits are premised on the welfare-enhancing effects of digital payments, which reduce costs, the probability of loss and risk for low-income consumers, as well as improve access to formal financial services. This study thus investigates the conditions under which these welfare-enhancing gains can be obtained. It considers the conditions under which e-payments can be welfare enhancing by using qualitative data from Zimbabwe. The severe liquidity constraints in Zimbabwe provide a good case for evaluating how well e-payments work, as the relative absence of cash has made the use of mobile money inevitable. Focus group data are analysed to understand participants’ everyday experiences with the e-payment system in Zimbabwe. The results indicate that the key challenges with payment systems faced by households include high costs, malfunctions of the system at the point of sale, lengthy refund processes and limited acceptance. Participants indicate a strong preference for foreign exchange cash as a mode of payment. High levels of concentration in the mobile money market, lack of transparency by financial service providers and a strong preference for cash by retailers are the main drivers of system failure. Therefore, this study identifies the need for the government to address the lack of competition in the market, as well as address macroeconomic liquidity constraints.
电子支付工具和福利:津巴布韦的案例
文献表明,电子支付是改善普惠金融和实现联合国可持续发展目标等全球发展目标的关键。这些好处的前提是数字支付的福利增强效应,它降低了成本,降低了低收入消费者损失和风险的可能性,并改善了获得正规金融服务的机会。因此,本研究调查了这些福利增加收益可以获得的条件。它考虑了电子支付可以通过使用津巴布韦的定性数据来提高福利的条件。津巴布韦严重的流动性限制为评估电子支付的效果提供了一个很好的案例,因为现金的相对缺乏使得移动货币的使用不可避免。对焦点小组的数据进行分析,以了解参与者对津巴布韦电子支付系统的日常体验。结果表明,家庭支付系统面临的主要挑战包括高成本、销售点系统故障、漫长的退款流程和有限的接受度。与会者表示,他们强烈倾向于使用外汇现金作为支付方式。移动货币市场的高度集中、金融服务提供商缺乏透明度以及零售商对现金的强烈偏好是导致系统故障的主要原因。因此,本研究确定了政府需要解决市场缺乏竞争的问题,以及解决宏观经济流动性约束问题。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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