The Future of G2P Payments: Towards an integrated infrastructure in Bangladesh

This case study is a supplement to the CGAP Blog, "A New Generation of Government-to-Person Payments Is Emerging" (October 2019).

By 2015, Bangladesh already had begun to experiment with digitizing government-to-person payments. Several social safety net programs, among the more than 100 in place, were experimenting with various digital payment approaches—often through a customized arrangement with a single vendor or provider.

Access to Information (A2i) is a cross-government agency that seeks to improve government services to citizens. Along with the digitization efforts that were already taking shape, A2i saw that more benefits could be gained if government programs shared and used a unified government payments platform that would consolidate and simplify delivery for both government programs and their citizens. In early 2016, A2i partnered with CGAP, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Better Than Cash Alliance, and Price Waterhouse Coopers to conduct a deep as-is context assessment. Based on this assessment, the partners set out to create a detailed systems design process that leveraged the existing payments infrastructure, identified trade-offs and reaffirmed the core goals of A2i’s vision of building a more inclusive digital payments system. As implementation progressed, A2i revisited the design, made adjustments, and brought in other government departments, while remaining focused on its ambitious long-term vision. By February 2019, A2i had connected key elements of the system and was well into piloting different aspects of the overall architecture.

Disclaimer

This work was funded in whole or in part by CGAP. Unlike CGAP's official publications, it has not been peer reviewed or edited by CGAP, and any conclusions or viewpoints expressed are those of the authors, and they may or may not reflect the views of CGAP staff.