Some descriptive statistics from a survey of HelloCash users conducted in Jijiga and Dollo Ado areas of Somali Region, Ethiopia; these are related to CEDIL

1. BASELINE SURVEY FINDINGS
Phone Survey: Referral Study
Alan de Brauw, Laura Leavens
June 2022

2. SAMPLE DESCRIPTION
Jijiga Dollo Ado
Hosts
Male 100 100
Female 100 100
Refugees
Male 100 100
Female 100 100
TOTAL 400 400
 Interviewed 800 HelloCash account
holders
 To be eligible for our sample, users had to
meet two criteria
1. Live in an active SHARPE area
2. Averaged at least 0.12 transactions
per month since enrolling in
HelloCash
o Total number of transactions
divided by number of months
since enrollment

3. Baseline Survey Components
 We asked each person a series of questions covering the following topics:
oDemographics (Age, marital status, education levels, etc.)
oSocial Network
oMobile Phone Use
oMobile Money Use (HelloCash and competing services)
oFinancial Inclusion (Financial accounts and savings preferences)
oFood Security

4. Basic Demographics
 Respondents about 30 years old
on average, from large households
 Also relatively well educated
 Large gender gap in literacy
(reading and writing ability)
between men and women
 Not much difference between
hosts and refugees on these
measures
Characteristic Average, Men Average,
Women
Age (years) 30.67 29.15
Head of HH
(proportion)
0.69 0.29
Household Size 7.39 7.29
Years of Education 8.85 7.01
Can read in at least
one language
(proportion)
0.94 0.76
Can write in at
least one language
(proportion)
0.94 0.75

5. Marital Status
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Polygamous married
Cohabitation
Divorced
Separated
Widowed
Monagamous married
Frequency (proportion)
Marital Status by Gender of
Respondent
Male Female
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60
Cohabitation
Divorced
Separated
Polygamous married
Widowed
Monagamous married
Frequency (proportion)
Marital Status by Refugee Status
Refugee Host
 Most respondents are in monogamous marriages (54%)
 Second most common marital status is widowed (35%)
 Very little differences by gender or refugee status
o Male respondents more likely than female respondents to be in polygamous
marriages (8% vs 2%)

6. Group Membership and Leadership
 17% of all respondents report
being a member of at least one
social group, with little difference
across gender or refugee status
o Female refugees are the least
likely to be members of a group
(14%)
 Of those who are members, high
proportions state they hold a
leadership position
o Ex: 11% of respondents are in a
trade/professional group. Of
these, almost ¾ are in leadership
positions.
0.6%
0.5%
0.6%
0.9%
7.9%
1.0%
1.0%
2.0%
3.0%
11.0%
0.0% 2.0% 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0%
Religious
Political
Social (i.e. women's)
Other
Trade/professional
Frequency (percent)
Membership and Leadership by Type of Group
Member
Leader

7. How often respondent sees relatives not in their
household…
…by gender of respondent
1%
2%
28%
36%
38%
35%
16%
13%
6%
7%
11%
8%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Female
Male
Frequency (percent)
Never Every day Every week
Every 2 weeks Every month Less than once a month
• Majority of respondents see these relatives
at least once a week
• Male respondents report seeing relatives
outside their household slightly more often
than women
• 36% of men see these relatives every day
compared to 28% of women
• 71% of men see these relatives at least every
week compared to 66% of women
• Not much difference by refugee status

8. How often respondent sees their friends…
…by gender of respondent
• Majority of respondents see friends every day
• Slightly more male respondents report seeing friends every day than women (55 vs 51%)
• No gender difference in terms of seeing friends at least once a week (83% for both men and women)
• Not much difference by refugee status
1%
0%
51%
55%
32%
28%
11%
11%
2%
2%
3%
4%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Female
Male
Frequency (percent)
Never Every day Every week Every 2 weeks Every month Less than once a month

9. Mobile phone ownership and use
• 96% of respondents own the
phone they use for HelloCash
• Female refugees less likely to use
a smartphone than other groups
• More refugees report experiencing
poor network coverage (at least
sometimes) than hosts
• More women report experiencing
poor coverage than men
• Male hosts least likely to report
poor coverage, female refugees
most likely
Average,
Male
Host
Average,
Female
Host
Average,
Male
Refugee
Average,
Female
Refugee
Uses a smartphone
(proportion)
0.5 0.49 0.49 0.39
Experiences poor
network coverage at
least sometimes
(proportion)
0.55 0.63 0.71 0.74

10. How did users hear about HelloCash?
• Most heard about
HelloCash from KYC
officers and friends
• Little difference by
refugee status or gender
alone
• More men than women
report having heard about
HelloCash from friends
• Women report hearing
about it from neighbors and
family at a higher rate than
men
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
KYC Officer Friend Flyer Family Neighbor
Frequency
(proportion)
How heard about HelloCash
Male Host Male Refugee Female Host Female Refugee

11. Who else uses HelloCash wallets?
0.49
0.25
0.03
0.08
0.04
0.01 0.01
0.04
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Frequency
(proportion)
Others who have access to respondents’
HelloCash wallets
• 9% of respondents report that at
least one other person has access
to their HelloCash Wallet
• Not much difference by gender or
refugee status
• Of that 9%, spouses and children
are the most likely individuals to
have access to the respondents’
wallets

12. Other HelloCash
Information
Average,
Male
Host
Average,
Female
Host
Average,
Male
Refugee
Average,
Female
Refugee
Currently has
positive balance in
HelloCash (%)
0.56 0.56 0.48 0.48
Has recommended
HelloCash to
someone (%)
0.85 0.89 0.72 0.71
 Hosts are more likely than
refugees to report having a
positive balance in their
accounts
o No differences by gender
 Hosts are also more likely to
report having recommended
HelloCash to someone they
know
o Regardless, having recommended
HelloCash was high across all
groups

13. Use of competing services
• Many respondents have accounts
with other digital financial services
• 42% report having an account
with Sehay
• 21% report having an account
with E-Birr
• Very few respondents use
CBEBIRR, Tele-Birr, ZAAD, or
Sahel
• Men more likely to have accounts
with Sehay and E-Birr
• Refugee women are more likely to
have E-Birr than host women, but
the reverse is true for Sehay
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Has account with Sehay Has account with E-Birr
Frequency
(proportion)
Male Host Male Refugee Female Host Female Refugee

14. Other Financial Accounts
• Male hosts are the most likely
(56%) to have a bank, credit union,
MFI, or RuSacco account
• Female refugees least likely (47%)
• 42% of respondents have a bank
account
• 10% have accounts with
RuSACCO/Iqqub/savings and
credit cooperatives
• Very few have accounts at credit
unions or MFIs
48%
47%
56%
43%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Female Host
Female Refugee
Male Host
Male Refugee
Frequency (percent)
Has an account at a bank, credit union, MFI or
RuSACCO

15. Savings Behavior
0.36
0.66
0.15
0.08
0.36
0.68
0.14
0.04
0.34
0.81
0.28
0.06
0.32
0.83
0.23
0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
Bank account Mobile money account Cash RuSACCO/Iqqub
Frequency
(%)
Where respondents prefer to keep their savings
Male Host Male Refugee Female Host Female Refugee
 The most frequently cited
place respondents prefer to
keep their savings is in mobile
money accounts
o Women more likely than men to
prefer mobile money accounts
o Women also more likely than
men to cite cash
 Very small gender differences
for bank accounts or
RuSACCOs
 Very small differences by
refugee status for bank
accounts and mobile money
accounts

16. Food Security
• Asked respondents a series of 8
questions to assess their food security
status within last 4 weeks
• Maximum score of 8 would indicate very
high food insecurity
• Wide variety of scores, with some
clustering at no food insecurity and very
high food insecurity levels
• On average, hosts were slightly less
food insecure than refugees refugees
during the previous four week period
(scores of 3.87 and 4.04)
• Not much difference by gender
0.23
0.06
0.08
0.09
0.07
0.08 0.08
0.16
0.15
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Frequency
(proportion)
Score
Food Security Index Scores

17. Food Security
• Many respondents are food insecure
• Majority (64%) are worried about
having enough to eat
• 48% had to skip a meal at least once
• Not much difference by gender except
for:
• Women were more likely to report
having to go without eating for a whole
day (23% vs 13%)
• Men were more likely to have only
eaten a few kinds of food (58% vs 50%)
• Not much difference by refugee status
except for:
• 66% of refugee respondents and 61%
of host repondents report being worried
about having enough to eat
0.13
0.40
0.48
0.58
0.50
0.60
0.64
0.65
0.23
0.40
0.48
0.50
0.50
0.59
0.63
0.65
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Went without eating for a whole day
Was hungry but did not eat
Had to skip a meal
Only ate few kinds of food
Ran out of food
Ate less than thought they should
Worried about having enough to eat
Unable to eat healthy and nutritious food
Frequency (proportion)
Food Security Responses by Gender
Female
Male

18. Summary
 We conducted phone surveys with 800 HelloCash customers in SHARPE
areas
oRelatively well educated, living in large households, experiencing food
insecurity
 Most wallets are only accessed by one individual but some share with
spouses or children
 Many respondents have other financial accounts, such as a bank account
or another digital service like E-Birr or Sehay
 Most frequently cited place respondents prefer to keep their savings is in
mobile money accounts, indicating trust in the service
 Responses sometimes differ by gender or refugee status so it’s important
to be mindful of the needs of these different groups