Liz Kendall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Kendall on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of mobile financial services on levels of extreme poverty in developing countries.

Mr Nick Hurd

Mobile financial services have a key role to play in connecting people to basic services, supporting economic empowerment and building resilience of individuals and families. DFID operates a number of financial inclusion programmes, many of which include elements to promote the development of mobile financial services, and all are required to undertake a formal Annual Review process to measure progress towards their expected impact. Our most significant programme in this area to date has been the technology programme for branchless banking, which at completion had provided access to financial services for just over 59m people globally.