Australian Embassy supports financial inclusion of marginalized poor
In photo from left: Oxfam Paolo Azzola, PayMaya Philippines’ Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director; Nardia Simpson, Australian Embassy Counsellor (Economic); Richard Simpson, Oxfam Australia Country Director; Amanda Gorely, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines; Stuart Tomlinson, Visa Worldwide Country Manager for Guam and Philippines; and Dante Dalabajan, Oxfam Philippines Sr. Manager for Program Quality
The Australian Government in partnership with Google.org has awarded the Google Impact Challenge “Technology Against Poverty” Prize to Oxfam. The Challenge is conducted worldwide to support local non-profit innovators to use technology to solve key social and development problems.
“The I AFFORD Project highlights an innovative partnership between the private sector, government and non-government organizations, to address enduring poverty challenges using technology,” said Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely, who launched the project on May 16, 2017.
The Inclusive and Affordable Financial Facilities for Resilient and Developed Filipinos Project or I AFFORD Project aims to connect poor Filipinos to affordable digital financial services, to help households manage their finances and encourage them to invest in micro-social and business insurance to protect their assets, livelihoods, and small businesses. It also helps the Government of the Philippines and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in their drive to bring the financial system closer to the financially underserved and unserved Filipinos.
Oxfam partners with PayMaya, a pioneer in mobile payments in the Philippines; and Visa Inc., a global payments technology company, to deliver this project in cooperation with BSP.
The platform not only revolutionized traditional cash aid transfers but also provided an entry point for financial inclusion. For the first time, poor women and men, mostly farmers or fisherfolk, can benefit from cashless transactions in purchasing goods from any local community stores and depositing or withdrawing money in the nearest community financial centres or Automated Teller Machines.
This press release has been edited for posting.
