Repaying loans with mobile money: impacts on female microfinance clients in Tanzania

Last registered on July 30, 2025

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Repaying loans with mobile money: impacts on female microfinance clients in Tanzania

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009006

Initial registration date

February 21, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

February 24, 2022, 1:08 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

July 30, 2025, 11:32 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Tanzania, United Republic of

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Emma Riley

Affiliation

University of Michigan

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Rachel Heath

PI Affiliation

University of Washington

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2022-02-28

End date

2025-12-31

Keywords

Finance & Microfinance, Firms & Productivity, Gender

Additional Keywords

mobile money, women's empowerment

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

We will use a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact on women’s empowerment of repaying microfinance loans using mobile money instead of the traditional method of repaying using cash. Our sample consists of 750 female microfinance borrowers with existing small enterprises in rural and peri-urban areas of Tanzania. We will randomly assign women to either 1) a control group maintaining repayment of the loan with cash at weekly group meetings, 2) a treatment arm repaying the loan weekly using mobile money alongside weekly group meetings or 3) a treatment arm repaying the loan weekly using mobile money but shifting to fortnightly group meetings. We will examine the take-up of mobile money repayment, using characteristics of the women at baseline and random price subsidies. We will examine the impact of the treatments on women’s empowerment at endline using a combination of survey questions and incentivized games to measure different dimensions of women’s agency and well-being. We will also understand the mechanisms through which any impacts on women’s empowerment are channeled by examining changes in female business outcomes, changes in use of mobile money services for both person and business transactions, and changes in microfinance group social cohesion.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Heath, Rachel and Emma Riley. 2025. "Repaying loans with mobile money: impacts on female microfinance clients in Tanzania." AEA RCT Registry. July 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9006-5.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Microfinance groups will be randomly assigned to one of the following 3 treatment arms:
1) Control (C) – repayment of microfinance loan with cash at weekly group meetings
Women in this treatment arm will continue to repay their microfinance loan as cash at weekly group meetings.
2) Treatment One (T1) – repayment of microfinance loan using mobile money. Weekly group meetings.
Clients in this arm will receive a training on how to use mobile money to repay their loan, administered by BRAC at their group meeting. They will be asked to use mobile money to make all their loan repayment (30 payments). Repayment using mobile money will be voluntary, with women free to continue cash repayment, however women will be encouraged to use mobile money and told this is the preferred repayment method. Women who make 4 repayments in a month using mobile money will be entered in a competition to receive a small prize from BRAC (likely a BRAC branded t-shirt)
3) Treatment Two (T2) – repayment of microfinance loan using mobile money. Fortnightly group meetings.
Clients in this arm will receive a training on how to use mobile money to repay their loan, administered by BRAC at their group meeting. They will be asked to use mobile money to make all their loan repayment (30 payments). Repayment using mobile money will be voluntary, with women free to continue cash repayment, however women will be encouraged to use mobile money and told this is the preferred repayment method. Women who make 4 repayments in a month using mobile money will be entered in a competition to receive a small prize from BRAC (likely a BRAC branded t-shirt).

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2022-05-02

Intervention End Date

2023-03-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Women's empowerment
Use of mobile money services
Business preformance
Group social cohesion

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The randomization will be done at the microfinance group level, which consists of on average 20 female clients. Everyone within the microfinance will be assigned to the same treatment arm, thus ensuring there are no spillovers between participants. Within the group, 5 clients will be randomly selected to take part in the study and have surveys conducted with them. Analysis will be conducted at the individual client level, with standard errors clustered at the group level to take into account the randomisation level. The randomization will be done in stata.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization in stata

Randomization Unit

microfinance group

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

150 microfinance groups

Sample size: planned number of observations

750 female clients

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Control: 50 groups, 250 clients
Treatment 1: 50 groups, 250 clients
Treatment 2: 50 groups, 250 clients

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

With 50 groups in each arm, and 5 women in each group, an intra-cluster correlation of 0.05 and assuming a baseline correlation of 0.3, and 70% take up, we could detect 0.26 standard deviations.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB