NOVAFRICA Seminar: “Hiding loans using mobile money: Experimental evidence on microenterprise investment in Uganda”

On Wednesday, February 13, at 2.30 pm, the NOVAFRICA Center welcomes Emma Riley, from the University of Oxford, to present her work on Hiding loans using mobile money on microenterprise investment in Uganda.

Author:
Emma Riley, University of Oxford

Abstract:

I examine whether changing the way microfinance loans are disbursed to utilise widespread mobile money services impacts the businesses of female microfinance borrowers. Using a field experiment of 3,000 borrowers of BRAC Uganda, I compare disbursement of a loan as cash to disbursement of a loan onto a mobile money account. After 9 months, women who received their microfinance loan on the mobile money account had 15% higher business profits and 11% higher levels of business capital. Impacts were greatest for women who experienced pressure to share money with others in the household at baseline, suggesting that providing the loan in a private account gives women more control over how the loan is used.

Find more about this seminar here.