plugPAY is a digital payment solution for vulnerable communities to rapidly receive cash assistance through their payment instrument of choice.
As cash-based transfers have grown to account for around 35 percent of the World Food Programme's assistance portfolio, demand for digital solutions is constantly growing. Their proven positive effect on financial inclusion and women empowerment along with the need for decentralized contactless solutions put pressure on the current processes and systems to deliver the over 39 different combinations of payment instruments and delivery mechanisms with over 220 partners in the financial sector.
plugPAY is WFP’s mass payment capability for beneficiary payments. It works towards empowerment and choice at the heart of an inclusive financial services ecosystem, while allowing for interoperable payments directly from WFP internal accounts to beneficiary accounts or mobile wallets. It shall be open for WFP and its partners in the humanitarian sector as well as governments and non-government organizations in the future. The platform shall enable the people WFP serves to enrol on programmes, choose the most favourable pay-out instrument or receive support for account creation and financial inclusion.
Deployed in WFP country offices in Zambia and Sri Lanka, plugPAY has aided over 600,000 people with a transfer value of US$7 million. The solution, which generated US$148,000 savings in the WFP Sri Lanka country office in 2023, is slated to roll out in Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Philippines and Tunisia in 2024, showcasing successful collaboration between WFP and various partners, including banks and telecom companies.
