During lockdown, all refugee camps have been under severe strain: savings are a luxury, so even the idea of stocking up on food was challenging.

The minority of camp residents who work, have mainly day jobs and therefore had no more income and no protection. Several of the SEP artists had their work at home and continued to work, but we did not know how to pay them!

So we accelerated a plan that had been in the making for a while: we switched to mobile payments.

With the precious support of JOPACC, the company that operates payments systems and develops digital financial services, partially owned by Jordan central bank, we managed to roll out mobile payments within a few weeks.

Orange Money donated dozens of smart phones to SEP artists who had obsolete phones and trained them at the SEP Tamari Foundation at the camp, to enable them to make the most out of their new phones and services, while JoPACC provided training on mobile wallets.

Now, we are working with JOPACC and Orange, to try and create an ecosystem at the camp, whereby the SEP artists not only receive their income on their phones, but can also spend the money via phone, at the camp.

Financial inclusion is a widely discussed theme, but one that too often is treated in a theoretical manner. 260 SEP artists, who had no access to banking services due to their status as refugees, are now active economic agents. Their mobile phone gives them access to an array of banking services, including savings, mobile to mobile transactions and online utilities bills settlement. 

There is a lot of work ahead, to make sure the camp ecosystem is adapted to this new digital financial inclusion world, but we are positive when we see how both JOPACC and Orange Jordan are considering this a strategic priority. We are honoured to be pioneering and enabling this evolution in Jerash camp and we hope many more social enterprises will follow in our path across all refugee camps!

Find out more about the partnerships developed by JOPACC in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown HERE.  

This partnership is directly advancing Sustainable Development Goal #17: Partnerships for the Goals.