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The Aadhaar way

Posted on by MSC

Opposition to cash substitution for public services has delved, to an extent, on the not-so-widely tried Aadhaar enabled system for identification.

However, work done by MicroSave, examining the implementation of the Aadhaar enabled schemes using the Unique Identification of India (UIDAI) platform shows there is much evidence to suggest that the system could, indeed, work.

MicroSave’s fieldwork highlights the significant changes brought out by the Aadhaar enabled systems and the progress achieved in two districts, Aurangabad city in Maharashtra and East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh.

This article is part of three in a series to showcase the work done by MicroSave with respect to the efficacy of Aadhaar.

Pension process in Aurangabad – A chronicle

In Aurangabad, pensioners comprise a substantial proportion of the population on welfare schemes provided by the central and state Government. However, ghost beneficiaries, using false identities, were common in these pension schemes. Aadhaar enabled distribution of payments was introduced in five government schemes viz. Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, Shravan BAL Old Age pension scheme, Indira Gandhi Old Age pension scheme, Indira Gandhi National Widow pension scheme and Indira Gandhi National Disable pension scheme. The local administration wanted to eradicate these ghost beneficiaries, eliminate the middlemen and thus improve the disbursement process.

The process of thinking on improving the disbursement process coincided with UIDAI’s Aadhaar programme gaining momentum. In Aadhaar, the district administration saw an opportunity to improve the disbursement of pension payments.

In 2011, the district administration initiated Project Dilasa to disburse payments to beneficiaries of five selected social assistance programmes. The Department of Social Justice Assistance, Government of Maharashtra, signed an agreement with the Bank of India for the bank to manage the cash and deliver payments through the Aadhaar-enabled payment system. Customer service points – agent outlets to help beneficiaries receive payments upon providing the authentication/biometric details were identified, thus helping leverage the Aadhaar identity to ensure targeted delivery.

The results? By eliminating ghost beneficiaries alone, Project Dilasa helped the district administration save Rs. 7.7 crore.

So what made project Dilasa click? For one, concerted and collective action coupled with process re-engineering and the effective use of technology made it possible for the District Collector to motivate his team members and closely monitor their progress. The district administration adopted several innovative measures for implementation of AePS (Aadhaar Enabled Pension Scheme) including digitization of the scheme database; development of a web-based application with the involvement of the National Informatics Centre; and detailing the standard operating procedure and process guide for it to be replicated elsewhere in the country.

Using the Aadhaar identity of beneficiaries ensured in effective targeting, increased transparency, and enhanced accountability while delivering payments. Savithri (whose name has been changed to protect her identity), a beneficiary of the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Anudhan Yojana (a scheme for destitutes – widows, disabled, divorcees under which Rs.600/person is rendered provided they are less than 65 years old, with a state domicile of more than 15 years and an annual income of uptoRs. 21000) told the MicroSave team that with AePS, the process is no longer time-consuming, bureaucratic and tedious as it was earlier.

Before the implementation of AePS, Savithri had received funds in her postal savings account that had a complex multi-step process and that also involved middlemen. She had to provide documents to establish her identity, certify the death of her husband and prove her age, address and domicile each time she had to access her welfare payments. However, in the current system, she substitutes one Aadhaar card for these documents and gets the full amount without tipping any government functionaries.

Leveraging Aadhaar has helped the district administration of Aurangabad to distribute payments to genuine beneficiaries. The success of the project, however, is also due to the presence of a few unique factors. Aurangabad is urban, with a motivated administration, an excellent banking partner and a diligent business correspondent that tools the process. These advantages accelerated effective implementation, establishing beyond doubt that cash transfers to the beneficiaries can be seamlessly rendered provided these enabling factors are in place.

Aurangabad, as a pilot, presents a great case that stands testimony to this and also demonstrates that it can be replicated elsewhere in the country. Facilitating the enabling factors as well as the creation of a conducive environment for various actors to function is central for the effective implementation of AePS.

In the next part on “the Aadhaar way”, Aadhaar implementation in the much acclaimed Public Distribution System in East Godavari district is examined.

(A print of this article was published with OneWorld South Asia)

MSC vision video: the next 5 years

Posted on by Parul Tandon

At MSC, the future looks exciting. We continue our current engagements in identity-based financial inclusion and bulk payments (G2P), while our work in the next five years promises to forge a deep connect between financial services and the real economy. We will address the digital divide, incorporating particularly vulnerable groups under the umbrella of financial inclusion, and continue to build capacity and skills.

We continue to make use of our experience and insights to deliver value to help our clients achieve sustainable performance improvements and unlock enduring value in the digital age. We have the capacity to engage and lend support, the flexibility to respond to client needs on the go, and deliver beyond expectations—because we operate primarily with our own staff, augmented with specialist associate consultants.

A deep understanding of our markets in Asia and Africa gives us the edge. Our innovative market-led approach continues to work towards a world in which all people have access to high quality, affordable, market-led financial, economic, and social services in the digital age.

 

 

 

 

MSC in numbers: our impact in 20 years

Posted on by Parul Tandon

For the past two decades, MSC has developed over 250 financial products in more than 56 countries across Asia and Africa, serving 50 million-plus people. We have assisted in the development of digital G2P services, used by more than 700 million people around the world.

MSC has collaborated with over 300 banks, mobile network operators, and microfinance institutions, and trained upwards of 7,700 practitioners, policymakers, and regulators. We have supported over 70 agent network managers, advised over 35 government ministries and regulators, and created over 750 publications.

MSC has a rich experience of working with partners across the globe including banks, mobile network operators, government, donors, and other organizations. Our 45 toolkits on different elements helped us build effective financial-services for low-income clientele. We have deployed our deep insight and experience to implement social performance management systems for 23 clients. MSC currently has a team of 180+ professionals spread across the globe.

The Andhra crisis: The beginning of an end or the end of a beginning?

Posted on by MSC

This presentation discusses the causes of Andhra Pradesh crisis, how it all started and the possible after-effects. It also examines how the Indian MFIs and the government should respond post this crisis. The presentation concludes with reactions from the clients.

So many steps forward … And now one big step back

Posted on by MSC

The January 16th, 2015, Office Memorandum (OM) from the Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance fixes commission for banks distributing direct benefit transfers (DBT), including those for LPG – liquid petroleum gas. The OM states that for urban schemes like DBTL (the LPG subsidy), the transaction cost may be paid at the NEFT rate or the APB rate as per the extant RBI or NCPI circulars. For rural schemes “like pensions, NREGA, pre-matric scholarship, maternity benefits etc., where a large number of transactions are likely to be through the Business Correspondents the transaction charges may be paid @ 1% subject to an upper limit of Rs.10 per transaction”.

After the extraordinary progress made in the last nine months on setting a regulatory and policy framework to enable and encourage financial inclusion, this OM looks like a significant setback. Given the excellent work that the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Financial Services has been doing to drive and monitor the implementation of the rollout of the PMJDY, it seems all the more strange that this OM should emanate from the same Ministry.

The conservative commission announcement seems to reflect a Government mindset that it is an expense and not an inevitable investment for the success of PMJDY and the expected social and financial returns. The massive potential of savings on FFF (fuel, food, and fertilizer) and all other subsidies through targeted distribution and the resultant salutary impact on budget deficit does not seem to have been considered. These savings are not merely an assumption or a projection. In many states, 10% to 40% savings are already being realized. The Government can easily collect and analyze block/district level data for operational DBT schemes to determine the potential for savings.

Targeted distribution will succeed only through a network of active and motivated bank mitras/CSPs (certainly until such time bank branches reach every gram panchayat or beyond). Paying adequate commissions will be an important pillar for the success of PMJDY. It is equally, if not more, important than the budget being spent on communication and advertisement campaigns. The next phase of PMJDY involving payments into and cash withdrawal from the millions of accounts opened will be highly dependent on field force of bank mitras and their supervising BCs and Banks. Unless BCs and bank mitras can earn at least a livelihood for themselves, it is a fallacy to expect them to deliver.

Another aspect to be understood is the wide distinction between paying through NEFT or APB and through business correspondents. The former is merely a digital transaction from the beginning to the end and hence the cost and complexity of fulfillment are very low. Cash withdrawal and servicing of accounts through bank mitras/CSPs is an altogether different ballgame. Beyond the point where funds hit beneficiary’s accounts, it is no more digital. It is a highly manpower intensive activity, with the complexity and risk associated with the management of hard cash, often in deep and remote rural areas. This wide distinction needs to be considered in determining the commission in the two instances.

As MicroSave (and indeed others) have documented, at least at the beginning, commissions for distributing DBT payments will be essential for rural agent (Bank Mitras or CSPs) economics. The consequences of under-remunerating agents were analyzed in Policy Brief # 9 “Behind the Big Numbers: Improving the Reach and Quality of Agent Networks in India”. “[In 2012] CGAP partnered with the RBI College of Agricultural Banking (CAB) to conduct a survey of 1,030 BCs across 11 states … out of the 1,030 BCs in the sample, only 860 could be surveyed … [of whom] 25% were not in a position to process transactions at the time of survey because they had no equipment, inadequate cash to meet customers’ withdrawal requests, or had simply stopped offering BC services altogether. This 25% was in addition to the 170 CSPs [12%] who could not be contacted with the advertised contact information or were not functional. This suggests a 37% effective dormancy rate – in line the 22-43% self-reported dormancy rate from MicroSave’s own 2012 survey of Business Correspondent Network Managers.” This was further confirmed by MicroSave’s own survey in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in 2014 – see box below.

In a survey of 2,932 villages with a population of greater than 1,000, only 39% are covered through customer service points (CSPs) [India’s frontline agents] according to State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC). Fieldwork reveals that only 7% of the villages have transaction ready CSPs; only 4% have CSPs available to transact every day.  A little over 2% of the appointed CSPs are doing more than 10 transactions a day, and less than 4% are earning more than Rs. 2,000 a month; with a median monthly income as low at Rs.1,500 – and so quite likely to quit the business soon. – From “The Curious Case of Missing Agents in Rural India”

As Policy Brief # 9 “Behind the Big Numbers: Improving the Reach and Quality of Agent Networks in India” points out, “A key problem is that India’s agents do not earn enough money to incentivize them to offer a reasonable quality of service. The survey found that over 58% of agents earn less than Rs.3,000 (then $54) per month – well below the $125-200 per month break-even point MicroSave has seen in markets with high-quality agent networks, such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Bangladesh. The median agent in the Indian survey indicated that they would need to earn at least Rs.6,500 ($118) per month to be willing to offer the service over the long-run.”

Currently, the vast majority of the agents disbursing DBT payments receive compensation that is far lower than the minimum wages prescribed by the respective state governments. Ironically it is the same minimum wage that many of these CSPs [agents] are distributing to others. In Policy Brief # 11 “Optimising Commissions and Payout Mechanism For G2P Payments Under Electronic and Direct Benefit Transfer” we recommended, “The minimum compensation to the CSPs (at least equivalent to the minimum wage prescribed in the state) has to be mandated through policy. The model for determining CSP compensation cannot be based purely on the volume of cash disbursed, as it is influenced by many factors outside the control of CSPs. It needs to be based on a prescribed fixed minimum monthly amount [the minimum wage set by the State – typically Rs.2,000-2,400], with the rest (about 25%) linked to the cash disbursed. The rest of the pay-out should be variable – at about 0.3% percent of the cash disbursed. …

Most banks are currently losing money servicing G2P payment disbursements. While they receive 1.0% to 2.0% (in a best case scenario) of the cash disbursed, their total ‘cost to disburse’, including BC and CSP costs are in the range of 3.0% or more. As a result, they are making a loss for every rupee disbursed. This does not make business sense. In order for banks to make a reasonable income, the payout to banks should be in the range of 3.0% to 3.3% (of this 1.9%  should be passed on to the BCs and the CSPs; while 1.1% can be retained by banks to cover their costs and realize a small margin).”

Some in government argue that the float amount available with banks will yield significant interest income for them, thus offsetting their costs. This does not hold much water, given our experience that the vast majority of payments are withdrawn within a few days of being credited to accounts.

Some banks are, at the behest of the Ministry of Finance, already paying their agents a fixed monthly salary of Rs3,500-5,000. If bank is only paid 1% commission for processing government payments, this will hardly begin to cover these outlays. MicroSave’s rough calculation suggests that 1% will yield an average of about Rs.1,000-1,500 per CSP/bank mitr– and this, only when all the subsidy schemes are digitized. Furthermore, absent a variable component of their salaries agents are unlikely to be incentivized to provide more than a very basic service; and the banks and agent network managers are unlikely to have the resources to monitor and support the performance of their agent networks.

All of the above has significant implications not just for the government’s efforts to digitize all direct benefit transfers, but also a variety of other key initiatives dependent on CSP/bank mitr agents to take financial services into the rural areas … not least of all the PMJDY itself. In addition, the timing of the OM may be unfortunate in that many of the potential applicants for Payments Banks licenses may well have penciled distributing DBTs into their financial projections. Furthermore, we worry that poorly remunerated agents (and agent network managers) will result in poor quality of service to populations are that are already shy of banks because of their experience in crowded banking halls and at the hands of surly branch staff.

Fortunately, the OM “may be reviewed from time to time” according to paragraph (iv) … basis the above, there is no time like the present to re-review it. There is a clear case to start with higher commissions – probably around 3% (as originally recommended by UIDAI led inter-ministerial task force) and then to reduce these over time as transactions, and thus agent viability, increase.

Digital governance: Is Krishna a glimpse of the future?

Posted on by MSC

Krishna, and AP more generally, are considered as among the leading areas to adopt digital technologies, including for ID and payments, and to reform public service delivery over the past decade. Most government services and subsidies are now linked to Aadhaar, India’s national biometric ID system. AP has also taken steps to minimize exclusion due to technology and has implemented real-time monitoring to improve service delivery.

Our three surveys—of households, ration shop owners, and bank correspondents—find widespread support for digital governance reforms, including the use of Aadhaar authentication to receive food rations through the public distribution system (PDS) and social pensions through the panchayat, as well as for digital land records. Technology provides an opportunity to make government more efficient and effective, improving the interface between people and the state.

However, we also find some areas for improvement. There is scope to improve authentication experience, especially for the elderly, and to strengthen the network of business correspondents to expand the reach and convenience of banking services, as well as to improve the process of on-boarding claimants for pensions and rations.