03 spend about 15 days a month, travelling areas. However, this solution failed, large distances to reach far-flung areas. increased the burden on the state and However, because the INAS is understaffed, undermined its distributional regime1. payments are highly irregular. Furthermore, manual payments pose security risks for INAS staff and beneficiaries – and leave staffers with little time for other important duties such as the provision of social services. All evaluations point to the need to improve the payment system. However, how to do so remains a challenge. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Bank set up a Working Group on Payment Systems which overlapped with the Working Group on Adaptive Social Protection. Vodacom was selected to administer the PASD-PE payments. To facilitate electronic transfers, most beneficiaries were offered a cell phone With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Mpesa accounts. However, Vodacom the World Bank teamed up with tech struggled to implement a digitalised billionaires to launch the G2Px initiative, payment system. In the midst of long delays a new ‘payment ecosystem’, where and growing political unrest, INAS brought customers choose between a range of the payment system back in-house. For private providers. Ignoring accepted views now, most beneficiaries will continue to be that outsourcing was costly, G2Px insisted paid manually using INAS’ Offline Payment that digitalization and outsourcing of cash App, while the World Food Programme transfers would ensure savings in the long- pilots e-wallet payments among 94,000 run (Gelb & Mukherjee, 2020). urban households (MGCAS/ILO, 2021). The The World Bank had already tried to outsource cash transfers in Mozambique. However, limited digital literacy and limited connectivity made electronic payments unworkable, and poor infrastructure made manual payments unprofitable. Because of this financial service providers were reluctant to bid for tenders. World Bank blames the failed outsourcing process on a restrictive regulatory environment for financial services. However, the government points to a number of other challenges, including the limited number of service providers with the network coverage and necessary infrastructure to respond to the needs of the programme at a national scale; the lack of experience working with The World Bank then proposed a model people with limited (digital) literacy; and based on electronic payments in urban lengthy delays in the disbursement of funds centres and manual payments in rural by the World Bank2. 1 Interview with a former tender coordinator by Ruth Castel-Branco, 12 October 2021, Maputo. 2 Interview with a state representative by Ruth Castel-Branco in Maputo, 13 October 2021. 18 Fast-tracking Financialization - International Financial Institutions’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Mozambique