Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

When you have a money emergency, WHO or WHAT do you turn to, or trust? Do you turn to family? Your community? Savings groups? Banks? Gods? Livestock? How do people pay when there’s an earthquake, a flood, a power outage, or bad actors? What do people do when the government decides to dollarize, redesign, redenominate or even abolish the local currency? People take off their clothes, people queue up for hours, they die in line – for cash.

I asked these crucial questions May 2025 at the MIASA “Cash in Crisis in Africa: Navigating Financial Realities in Times of Disruption” conference at the University of Ghana where I shared findings derived from 17+ years of research conducted by the fellows of the Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) at the University of California, Irvine.

MIASA’s Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG12) organized two days of interdisciplinary presentations from researchers, central bankers, financial experts, and practitioners from across Africa (Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe), Germany, the UK, and the US to interrogate the above questions, focusing on how cash systems are impacted, transformed, and reimagined in moments of crises across Africa.

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade." 

This is post 6 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade." 

This is post 5 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade." 

This is post 1 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade." 

This is post 3 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade." 

This is post 2 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade."

This is post 1 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

Is mobile money changing the way people carry out their financial transactions in rural markets in Myanmar and India? Our comparative qualitative research of an agricultural market town in northern Myanmar and of a fishing market in southern India showed the multitude of ways people move, borrow, and save money in these places, and the value that humans bring to transactions that could easily be made through ICTs yet continue to be done “the old way.” ICTs and specific applications such as mobile money bring a different type of value, and in this final post we reflect on what we learned about human and machine intermediation in financial areas. This is part 3 of 3 blogposts. Original project page: https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/research/2015/srinivasan_oreglia_2015.php#

Excerpt: How the Afar view state-backed currency vs. livestock

“Commerce in the Afar region has been accompanied by two features of a cash economy: sharp fluctuations in the prices of commodities, and the arrival of an active class of merchants in the region. They agreed that for purchasing more tradable goods, there must be more money and favorable orientation to money as wealth. And these in turn depend on the purchasing and exchange value of money, especially for urban households. With very limited investment options, instead of depositing their money in a bank, backyard goat rearing serves as a store of productive assets and an effective strategy to avoid the fast falling purchasing power of money.

Report AbstractThis report is an investigation into the major changes observed in the pastoral system of the Afar of Northeastern Ethiopia, their shift towards the market and the application of money and technology, and the subsequent changes in gender relations. A combination of ethnographic methods including semi-structured and key informant interviews, focus discussions, and life histories were used to collect data from 89 respondents in five towns. Complementary data were also collected from additional informants through informal conversations with state officials, civic and clan leaders, sages and academics. It was found that pastoralism is gradually dying, and, consequently, women engaging in the market are increasing both in number and significance. However, their success is hugely constrained by various structural forces, notably state policies, failing laws and processes, lack of formal financing, price fluctuation, and absence of appropriate technology. In the face of these challenges, the Afar women continue to effectively commoditize their pastoral products and participate in wage employment. This shift has further enhanced cash income and mobility. In the absence of formal financial agencies, the traditional sources of capital and money transferring arrangements remain important to the livelihood systems of the Afar people.

This project set out to examine how 20 unbanked women of diverse backgrounds use different kinds of mobile money social/financial tools over the course of one year. We used ethnographic fieldwork and quantitative social network analysis (SNA) to measure how women in Western Kenya were using digital financial tools and social networks.How are digital financial tools used as a part of women’s’ social /financial networks? Adapting the financial diary method, we visited women every two weeks and recorded how they used digital financial tools such as digital credit and M-Pesa; how they used cash, either for payments, for keeping in a secret place, or for gift-giving; and how women used in-kind value such as food, clothing and plants as gifts and exchanges. The study sought to understand how women’s use of digital financial services fits in to existing social networks and financial networks that include digital finance, cash money, mobile money transfer, and other media of exchange (Zelizer, 2000).