Digital Finance

Companion Cards

This use case report presents a compelling case for companion cards as a practical, low‑tech bridge to digital financial inclusion in Ethiopia, where nearly half of adults have accounts but only a small fraction actively use digital payments due to limited smartphone access, low digital literacy, and weak connectivity. It explains how these cards, physical extensions of mobile‑money wallets, provide additional channel for mobile money owners, enable people without mobile phones to store, access, and transact digital value through agents, POS devices, and merchant networks, addressing key rural barriers such as poor network access, difficulty using handsets, and low trust in DFS.

Published By

Team Shega

Published On

03 February 2026

use case media