M-Banking: framework for extending adoption of M-banking in rural areas of Kenya.

Abstract

Banking is an area in which technology has had a fundamental impact on the everyday lives of consumers. This dissertation examines an innovation in the financial services industry, namely mobile banking services. It seeks to determine and explain the factors affecting the adoption of mobile banking services, and further to determine that mobile banking can be used to enhance the pervasiveness of banking services in rural and low income areas of Kenya, where access to financial services has traditionally been a problem. In order to arrive at a theoretical model, it draws on traditional theories of innovation diffusion and adoption and also on the literature relating to electronic banking and technology-based services. The model was tested with an empirical study. This aimed at conceptualizing various factors and modeling the relationships between variables in the mobile banking adoption framework. Methodologically, the dissertation takes a descriptive approach to the phenomenon under study. The data in the empirical study was collected by means of questionnaires, observation and interviews. The results indicated that certain attributes of mobile banking innovation drive the pervasiveness in its usage in rural and low income areas of Kenya or explain consumer behavior, in particular relative advantage, compatibility, observability, trialability, risk, age and education. By contrast, the investigation of complexity and gender disparity yielded no support as being barriers to adoption in these areas. Overall the dissertation goes some way beyond merely modeling consumer behavior in the mobile banking context but it also presents insights that could be useful to the government, mobile network operators and banking practitioners on the model of mobile banking that can most effectively increase the pervasiveness of banking services access in rural areas. Such financial access will help these unbanked rural people in Kenya out of poverty, and ultimately accomplish the first goal as outlined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out in Vision 2030.