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Refugee Women in Cameroon Empowered by Mobile Money

Anne Nzouankeu

   GADO REFUGEE CAMP, CAMEROON - In refugee camps in Cameroon, food aid
   has been replaced by mobile money payments. The system allows refugees
   to choose what food they buy and allows women to rely less on their
   husbands in the mostly polygamous society.

   Djenaba Abdoulaye, a Central African Republic refugee in eastern
   Cameroon, no longer has to ask her husband for rations of food aid.
   Instead, she does her weekly shopping with aid money for refugees that
   was transferred directly to her mobile phone.

   Djenaba says the program helped her a lot by giving her a lot of
   capabilities. As she is in a polygamous home of three women, her
   husband used to take food for all of the family and shared it among the
   three wives. Now, she says, each wife has her phone, benefits from the
   assistance for her children and herself and uses it as she wants.

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