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Private investment can be an important engine of economic growth in East African countries, which, despite recent growth rates, are still plagued with adverse economic conditions. Against this backdrop, there has been substantial penetration of mobile money, moving beyond simple person-to-person exchanges toward adoption by private firms. This study explores whether there is a relationship between firm adoption of mobile money and firm investment. Using firm-level data that are nationally representative of the private sector in three East African countries-Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda-a positive relationship is found between mobile money use and the probability of a firm's purchase of fixed assets. This relationship is attributed to reduced transaction costs, increased liquidity, and increased credit worthiness associated with the use of mobile phone financial services.

Financial Development --- Firms --- Investment --- Mobile Money

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This paper follows the World Bank Group's approach to Jobs and Economic Transformation (JET) which identifies economic transformation as key to creating more and better jobs. It builds on the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) approach to developing a digital economy to create the jobs of the future, which is aligned with the African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy, 2020-2030. Helping countries build new digital This section is prepared in the context of Covid-19 pandemic that threatens decades of hard-won development gains and is likely to have triggered the deepest global recession since the World War II. The economic crisis is generating massive unemployment, particularly affecting the poor and vulnerable, and highlights the importance of jobs and economic transformation. The HoA countries already faced the challenge of a population growth at a rate around 3% preinfrastructure, and to develop regulations, skills and platforms that are compatible with neighboring countries should enable them to develop a larger and more efficient digital market that can facilitate economic transformation by enabling technological leapfrogging, and the creation of new jobs in old and new sectors. New forms of market connectivity can bring opportunities for new services and regional economic development in the Horn of Africa.

E-Commerce --- ICT Economics --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Information Technology --- Mobile Money --- Private Sector Development

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This paper explores economic informality and how it relates to digital financial inclusion. It focuses specifically on the potential role that digital financial services-including those accessed through mobile phones and the internet can play in encouraging businesses to formalize their operations. The data show wide variations in the extent of informality as well as the financial inclusion of informal business owners. The paper finds that digital financial services can make it easier for informal firms to register and operate as a formal business, while also creating synergies between individual reform efforts. For example, companies that use a digital payroll system can easily make pension contributions when online platforms are available. Digital financial transactions also make it easier for governments to enforce laws and regulations, including tax collection. However, there are several important caveats. It is not clear that formalizing small transactions is an effective way to increase tax collection. As the digital economy grows and countries seek to curb informality, policymakers should tailor their programs to the needs and realities of different groups of enterprises.

E-Business --- E-Finance and E-Security --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Microenterprises --- Mobile Money --- Private Sector Development

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The mobile revolution has transformed the lives of Kenyans, providing not just communications but also basic financial access in the form of phone-based money transfer and storage, led by the M-PESA system introduced in 2007. Currently, 93 percent of Kenyans are mobile phone users and 73 percent are mobile money customers. Additionally, 23 percent use mobile money at least once a day. New potential for mobile money has come with the rise of interest-earning bank-integrated mobile savings systems, beginning with the launch of the M-KESHO system in March 2010. The authors examine the mobile savings phenomenon, using data collected in a special survey in late 2010. They show that the usage of bank-integrated mobile savings systems like M-KESHO remains limited and largely restricted to better-off Kenyans. However, what the authors term "basic mobile savings"-the use of simple mobile money systems as a repository for funds-is widespread, including among those who are otherwise unlikely to have any savings. Holding other characteristics constant, those who are registered for M-PESA are 32 percent more likely to report having some savings.

Banks & Banking Reform --- E-Business --- E-Finance and E-Security --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Mobile money --- Mobile phone --- Poverty Reduction --- Savings --- Kenya

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After the return to democracy, Ghana achieved significant economic growth and poverty reduction. However, in recent years, the rate of poverty reduction has slowed, becoming insignificant after 2012. The largest reduction in poverty, 2 percent per year, was reached from 1991-1998. Subsequently, the rate of decline fell to 1.4 percent in 1998-2005, 1.1 percent in 2005-2012, and dropped to 0.2 percent per year between 2012 and 2016. The slowdown in poverty reduction was not due to a reduction in GDP per capita growth, which peaked between 2005 and 2012 and remained high between 2012 and 2016. Rather, it was due to a drop in the rate to which economic growth translated into poverty reduction. The growth elasticity of poverty (percentage reduction in poverty associated for every one percentage change in GDP per capita) was 1.2 between 1991 and 1998 but declined to less than 0.1 between 2012 and 2016, indicating a 1 percent increase in GDP per capita led to less than 0.1 percent reduction in poverty.

Access of Poor to Social Services --- Education --- Education For All --- Employment --- Inequality --- Mobile Money --- Poverty --- Poverty Assessment --- Poverty Reduction --- Pro-Poor Growth