Money transfer and monetary well-being of beneficiaries: What is the role of mobile money in the fight against poverty in Côte d’Ivoire?

Abstract The poverty rate in Côte d’Ivoire is decreasingwith difficulty. Currently, 36.1% of Ivorians live below the poverty line. Moreover, social policies based on money transfers and person-to-person transfers have increased with the advent of mobile currency. This study explored the role that mobile money can play in poverty reduction policies in Côte d’Ivoire. We analyze the factors that influence this phenomenon. To do this, our methodology is based on recursive bivariate and logit estimates with a threshold effect on survey data of 1,536 people in Abidjan collected through our own care. The results show that for an individual to be able to escapemonetary poverty, he must receive a money transfer of 14,000 FCFA per month, which translates into a poverty reduction of 2.1% on average per year. The use of mobile money reduces the poverty of beneficiaries of money transfer by 0.74%. Our results suggest that, under the Productive Social Safety Net Project, it would be more effective to increase the numberof transfers to poor households to 42,000 FCFA per quarter rather than 36,000 FCFA per quarter. while promoting the spread of mobile money services for money transfers between individuals, including by offering promotional offers for transfers of a minimum amount of 14,000 FCFA.