IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v191y2023ics0040162523001889.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mobile money adoption in Kenya: The role of mobile money agents

Author

Listed:
  • Johnen, Constantin
  • Parlasca, Martin
  • Mußhoff, Oliver

Abstract

It has been frequently shown that the proximity of households to mobile money agents is a decisive factor for the adoption of mobile money. However, merely measuring the distance to agents overshadows the fact that agents are a heterogenous group, offering different services and abilities to costumers; differences, which could affect mobile money adoption. The present study therefore investigates, under the lens of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM), how agent characteristics affect mobile money adoption, using georeferenced data from a nationally representative Kenyan household survey and a census of all mobile money agents in Kenya. Results from logistic regressions show that people are statistically significantly more likely to adopt mobile money, if nearby agents offer account opening services, or if nearby agents have received formal training. The study further shows that agent training is particularly important for mobile money adoption among people without formal education. Considering that only 59 % of agents offer account opening services and only 58 % of the agents are formally trained, this article points towards a large potential for mobile money lenders and policy makers to foster financial inclusion in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnen, Constantin & Parlasca, Martin & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2023. "Mobile money adoption in Kenya: The role of mobile money agents," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:191:y:2023:i:c:s0040162523001889
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523001889
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122503?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2020. "Adopting Mobile Money: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural Africa," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 594-598, May.
    2. Ggombe Kasim Munyegera & Tomoya Matsumoto, 2018. "ICT for financial access: Mobile money and the financial behavior of rural households in Uganda," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 45-66, February.
    3. Lepoutre, Jan & Oguntoye, Augustina, 2018. "The (non-)emergence of mobile money systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: A comparative multilevel perspective of Kenya and Nigeria," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 262-275.
    4. Ha, Sejin & Stoel, Leslie, 2009. "Consumer e-shopping acceptance: Antecedents in a technology acceptance model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 565-571, May.
    5. Komlan Gbongli & Yongan Xu & Komi Mawugbe Amedjonekou, 2019. "Extended Technology Acceptance Model to Predict Mobile-Based Money Acceptance and Sustainability: A Multi-Analytical Structural Equation Modeling and Neural Network Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-33, July.
    6. Conrad Murendo & Meike Wollni & Alan De Brauw & Nicholas Mugabi, 2018. "Social Network Effects on Mobile Money Adoption in Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 327-342, February.
    7. Rayner Tabetando & Tomoya Matsumoto, 2020. "Mobile money, risk sharing, and educational investment: Panel evidence from rural Uganda," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 84-105, February.
    8. Kabengele, Christian & Hahn, Rüdiger, 2021. "Institutional and firm-level factors for mobile money adoption in emerging markets–A configurational analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    9. Cull, Robert & Gine, Xavier & Harten, Sven & Heitmann, Soren & Rusu, Anca Bogdana, 2018. "Agent banking in a highly under-developed financial sector: Evidence from Democratic Republic of Congo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 54-74.
    10. Aron, Janine, "undated". "'Leapfrogging': a Survey of the Nature and Economic Implications of Mobile Money," INET Oxford Working Papers 2017-02, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, revised Jan 2017.
    11. Kellie J. Archer & Stanley Lemeshow, 2006. "Goodness-of-fit test for a logistic regression model fitted using survey sample data," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 6(1), pages 97-105, March.
    12. Jason Acimovic & Chris Parker & David Drake & Karthik Balasubramanian, 2018. "Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment," Harvard Business School Working Papers 18-106, Harvard Business School.
    13. Oliveira, Tiago & Faria, Miguel & Thomas, Manoj Abraham & Popovič, Aleš, 2014. "Extending the understanding of mobile banking adoption: When UTAUT meets TTF and ITM," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 689-703.
    14. Carlos Cinelli & Chad Hazlett, 2020. "Making sense of sensitivity: extending omitted variable bias," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 82(1), pages 39-67, February.
    15. Glenn Hoetker, 2007. "The use of logit and probit models in strategic management research: Critical issues," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 331-343, April.
    16. Chamboko, Richard & Cull, Robert & Giné, Xavier & Heitmann, Soren & Reitzug, Fabian & Westhuizen, Morne Van Der, 2021. "The role of gender in agent banking: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    17. William Jack & Tavneet Suri, 2014. "Risk Sharing and Transactions Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 183-223, January.
    18. Jean N. Lee & Jonathan Morduch & Saravana Ravindran & Abu Shonchoy & Hassan Zaman, 2021. "Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 38-71, January.
    19. Otterbach, Steffen & Oskorouchi, Hamid Reza & Rogan, Michael & Qaim, Matin, 2021. "Using Google data to measure the role of Big Food and fast food in South Africa’s obesity epidemic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. Lin, Hsiu-Fen, 2011. "An empirical investigation of mobile banking adoption: The effect of innovation attributes and knowledge-based trust," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 252-260.
    21. Munyegera, Ggombe Kasim & Matsumoto, Tomoya, 2016. "Mobile Money, Remittances, and Household Welfare: Panel Evidence from Rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 127-137.
    22. Shaikh, Aijaz A. & Glavee-Geo, Richard & Karjaluoto, Heikki & Hinson, Robert Ebo, 2023. "Mobile money as a driver of digital financial inclusion," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    23. Anthony Amoah & Kofi Korle & Rexford Kweku Asiama, 2020. "Mobile money as a financial inclusion instrument: what are the determinants?," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(10), pages 1283-1297, August.
    24. Mogaji, Emmanuel & Nguyen, Nguyen Phong, 2022. "The dark side of mobile money: Perspectives from an emerging economy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    25. Riley, Emma, 2018. "Mobile money and risk sharing against village shocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 43-58.
    26. Koomson, Isaac & Bukari, Chei & Villano, Renato A, 2021. "Mobile money adoption and response to idiosyncratic shocks: Empirics from five selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Osabutey, Ellis L.C. & Jackson, Terence, 2024. "Mobile money and financial inclusion in Africa: Emerging themes, challenges and policy implications," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johnen, Constantin & Musshoff, Oliver & Parlasca, Martin C., 2022. "Mobile Money Adoption in Kenya: The Role of Mobile Money Agents," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322294, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Richard Chamboko, 2024. "Digital financial services adoption: a retrospective time-to-event analysis approach," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Apeti, Ablam Estel, 2023. "Household welfare in the digital age: Assessing the effect of mobile money on household consumption volatility in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Naito, Hisahiro & Yamamoto, Shinnosuke, 2022. "Is better access to mobile networks associated with increased mobile money adoption? Evidence from the micro-data of six developing countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6).
    5. Hisahiro Naito & Shinnosuke Yamamoto, 2022. "Is Better Access to Mobile Networks Associated with Increased Mobile Money Adoption? Evidence from the Micro-data of Six Developing Countries," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2022-001, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    6. Ablam Estel Apeti, 2022. "Household welfare in the digital age: Assessing the effect of mobile money on household consumption volatility in developing countries," Post-Print hal-03819779, HAL.
    7. Miyajima, Ken, 2022. "Mobile phone ownership and welfare: Evidence from South Africa’s household survey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Kabengele, Christian & Hahn, Rüdiger, 2021. "Institutional and firm-level factors for mobile money adoption in emerging markets–A configurational analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    9. Jenny Aker & David A Carroll, 2022. "The State of Digital Financial Services in Francophone West Africa," Working Papers hal-03642499, HAL.
    10. Constantin Johnen & Oliver Mußhoff, 2023. "Digital credit and the gender gap in financial inclusion: Empirical evidence from Kenya," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 272-295, March.
    11. Hiroyuki Egami & Tomoya Matsumoto, 2020. "Mobile Money Use and Healthcare Utilization: Evidence from Rural Uganda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-34, May.
    12. Luc Jacolin & Joseph Keneck Massil & Alphonse Noah, 2021. "Informal sector and mobile financial services in emerging and developing countries: Does financial innovation matter?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2703-2737, September.
    13. Ablam Estel Apeti & Jean-Louis Combes & Eyah Denise Edoh, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in developing countries: can mobile money play a role?," Working Papers hal-04081304, HAL.
    14. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    15. Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2018. "Is mobile money changing rural Africa? Evidence from a field experiment," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp1805, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    16. Valentina Rotondi & Francesco C. Billari, 2022. "Mobile Money and School Participation: Evidence from Africa," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(1), pages 343-362, February.
    17. Joël Cariolle & David A Carroll, 2022. "The Use of Digital for Public Service Provision in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers hal-03004535, HAL.
    18. Ky, Serge Stéphane & Rugemintwari, Clovis & Sauviat, Alain, 2021. "Friends or Foes? Mobile money interaction with formal and informal finance," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1).
    19. Olukorede Abiona & Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner, 2022. "Financial Inclusion, Shocks, and Poverty: Evidence from the Expansion of Mobile Money in Tanzania," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(2), pages 435-464.
    20. Ajefu, Joseph B. & Massacky, Falecia, 2023. "Mobile money, child labour and school enrolment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:191:y:2023:i:c:s0040162523001889. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.