Residents of Pulilan, Bulacan experience the convenience of receiving salaries and paying bills by using their mobile phones.

USAID/Philippines

The Scaling Innovations in Mobile Money (SIMM) Project is a two-year USAID/Philippines program under the Partnership for Growth (PFG), a White House initiative. The PFG represents a partnership between the Philippines and the United States to promote broad-based and inclusive growth. The U.S. Government is working with the Government of the Philippines (GPH), the private sector and civil society organization to help put the Philippines on an accelerated growth trajectory that benefits the majority of its population.

The two-year, Php81.4 million ($1.9 million) project builds upon USAID’s past interventions in microenterprise access and mobile banking to expand financial services through new technologies. Financial services provide the means for the poor and unbanked to build assets, better withstand shocks, and participate more broadly in the formal economy.

Mobile money (m-money) has the potential to help the Philippines reach these development goals faster and make those gains sustainable. With just 26 percent of Filipinos enjoying access to formal financial channels, a latent demand remains largely untapped since 610 out of 1,635 municipalities do not have banks. M-money offers an innovative, secure, cost-effective means to create high impact development that benefits marginalized populations. It also offers greater ability to track financial flows in line with the GPH thrust towards greater transparency and accountability in financial transaction.

ACTIVITIES
SIMM aims to increase uptake and usage of m-money services by working with local and national government units to promote the adoption of m-money in government financial transactions. SIMM will encourage adoption of mobile money payments for business transaction with special focus on SMEs. The project will also train people on the uses of m-money and for improved household financial management, facilitate new savings account openings via m-banking, establish additional cash-in/cash-out merchant partners in rural areas, increase e-payroll implementation and adoption by businesses, and increase volume of m-money transactions.

USAID is partnering with m-money providers BPI-Globe BanKO, G-Xchange Inc. and Smart e-Money, Inc. for the implementation of SIMM. USAID also works with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Budget and Management, Commission on Audit, LGUs of Pulilan, Valenzuela City, Quezon City, and Batangas City, and financial institutions such as the National Confederation of Cooperatives, CCT Savings and Credit Cooperative, FICO Bank, GM Bank and the Kabalikat para sa Maunlad na Buhay.

GOAL
SIMM advances financial inclusion through these inter-connected goals: • Boost expansion and rapid adoption of m-money services; and • Create an enabling environment for m-money.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

• Improve public service delivery by promoting the use of mobile money in government transactions

SIMM targets four broad areas of strategic intervention:

• the payment system;
• government services;
• electronic payroll (e-Payroll) distribution; and
• agent network distribution