Primary Education Stipend Program News Today

Bangladesh’s Primary Education Stipend Program provides stipends for 13 million primary schoolchildren to 10 million mothers. In 2017 the method of payment changed from cash to mobile money. This study considers the experience of the mothers with the shift to mobile money, and to the change in payments service provider that took place in 2019, through a survey of recipients and a control group. Our analysis indicates that beneficiaries overwhelmingly support the transition to digital payments.

Historically, social assistance payments were often distributed in cash at designated payment points—government offices, community meetings, or schools. More recently, payments have increasingly been distributed digitally, through bank accounts or mobile wallets.