Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

For this research project, we chose to focus on the acceptance of the mobile money service "Tigo Money" by the rural population of Bolivia and the effects of this new technology on the development of rural areas. 40% of the Bolivian rural population lives in extreme poverty on less than US$1.25 per day. However, despite the country's poor infrastructure and dispersed population, an estimated 98% of Bolivians have access to mobile technology. It may be for this reason that, in January of 2013, Tigo--a brand of the international telecommunications and media company Millicom--launched its nationwide mobile money platform Tigo Money in order to allow for further “financial inclusion that will allow overcoming of barriers and distance between people, especially among rural populations.”

Our research area consists of two municipalities--Urmiri and Chayanta--located in the northern area of Potosi, one of Bolivia’s nine departments. The municipalities chosen have two of the highest indices of poverty in all of Bolivia and most of their economic activity is derived from subsistence agriculture and/or livestock. These two municipalities are also fairly difficult to access: The inhabitants of Urmiri must travel one hour and forty-five minutes by bus through very rough terrain to reach Potosi, the nearest urban center, while the inhabitants of Chayanta are thirty minutes away by bus from Llallagua, a medium-sized mining town. We were able to gather information from these two communities regarding their use of Tigo Money through participant observation and by conducting over 500 surveys and 69 interviews with its inhabitants over a period of four weeks. We also spoke to Tigo Money Service Point attendants and professional experts in the areas of communication and technology in Bolivia.