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Can governments make cash transfers to citizens without bank accounts?

By EconoFact
YES

While 30% of the global population does not have a bank account, two-thirds of unbanked adults worldwide have a mobile phone. Mobile money applications stand in for traditional banking services in many parts of the world. Mobile money services facilitate a variety of financial transactions via mobile phones including storing cash, making withdrawals, making cash transfers, and paying bills without requiring a bank account. In 2019, there were 290 mobile money deployments (mobile money services) across 95 countries with over 1 billion registered users. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of Bangladesh, Morocco, Kenya, India, Cambodia, and Columbia (among others) used mobile money to make cash transfers to their citizens. 

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EconoFact is a non-partisan publication designed to bring key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies. Launched in January 2017, it is written by leading academic economists from across the country who belong to the EconoFact Network. It is published by the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
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