New Incentives is a nonprofit in Nigeria that works alongside state governments and partners to increase the rates of childhood vaccinations and reduce childhood mortality.
New Incentives provides cash incentives to caregivers at government clinics after children receive various vaccinations for diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, hepatitis B, and measles. The cash incentives to mothers total up to ₦11,000 (approximately $7), helping the caregivers cover transportation costs and lost income. Field staff are responsible for enrolling caregivers, verifying that infants have received vaccines, and disbursing cash incentives.
New Incentives leverages technology in interesting ways to implement their mission, enabling them to reach a large number of caregivers and infants at very low costs. Including all of New Incentives' expenses, the total cost has decreased to about $17 per infant as they have scaled the program across northern Nigeria.
Although New Incentives disburses the cash incentives outside of Telerivet, New Incentives uses Telerivet's airtime transfer feature extensively to support the work devices of over 2,900 staff across Nigeria.
New Incentives has used Telerivet since 2016 to send airtime credits to work devices assigned to field workers. For workers on prepaid mobile plans, sending airtime credits is a simple way to ensure their work phones remain functional, without requiring them to use personal funds. Workers can then use the airtime credits for job-related data submission as well as communication, including phone calls and SMS messaging.
After Telerivet added the ability to send data bundles in 2024, New Incentives also began using Telerivet to send data bundles to work devices, providing mobile data at a lower cost than using airtime credits directly. This enables field workers to access New Incentives’ digital systems without paying out of pocket.
Sending airtime and bundles to field workers is easy, since New Incentives only needs each worker's phone number. After importing the workers' phone numbers into Telerivet, New Incentives' global team can quickly select large groups of workers and disburse airtime or bundles automatically, reducing the time needed to process disbursements.
The results of New Incentives' program have been significant, enabling New Incentives to scale from enrolling 14,000 infants in 2017 to enrolling over 1.7 million infants in 2024 alone. According to GiveWell, New Incentives’ model is “one of the most cost-effective ways we’ve found to save a life.”