USAID-backed mobile banking project to be launched in PH

MANILA, Philippines — An officer of the United States Agency for International Development (US AID) will be in the country to launch a mobile banking project aimed at expanding Filipinos’ access to financial services.

In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said that USAID Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor to the Administrator Maura O’Neill would be in the Philippines from September 9 to 12.

“O’Neill will lead the launch of USAID’s Scaling Innovations in Mobile Money (SIMM) project, which aims to give Filipinos easier and more efficient access to banking and payment services through mobile phones,” it said.

The US AID had boasted that the project would take advantage of the Philippines’ high penetration rate of mobile phone subscribers, saying that this would close the gap and extend financial services to Filipinos who did not have access to banks.

It said that key areas included the payment system, government services, and electronic payroll distribution.

The embassy also noted that O’Neill would be meeting with local civil society organizations as part of the group’s efforts to “enhance and strengthen USAID partnerships with local institutions.”

In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario also signed the Partnership for Growth (PFG).

“The Philippines is one of only four countries in the world where the US government, through PFG, brings its federal agencies together to provide a whole-of-government approach to advance economic development in a country,” it said.