The Wall Street Journal reported African governments and mobile money providers bolstered the use of mobile money to help combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. The use of mobile phones for monetary exchanges and payments minimizes the amount of hard currency handling which involve in-person meetings and phsycial interaction. Other benefits reported by the Journal included mobile money transaction fees were reduced in Mozambique, Zambia and Rwanda and that the system was also used to distribute public assistance in Madagascar.