Factors affecting the adoption of mobile money services in the banking and financial industries of Botswana

MBA North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013This study set out to investigate factors affecting the adoption of mobile money services in the banking and financial industries of Botswana in the light of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and demographic variables (that is, age of individuals, income, education level, bank account) from mobile money service adoption literature. To do this, a likert-like closed-ended questionnaire was administered to a total of 190 respondents from a targeted sample of 200 users and non-users of mobile banking services from four regions in Gaborone-Botswana. To ensure diversity in terms of demographic characteristics, stratified random sampling was done. The analysis of the results revealed that gross income and ownership of bank accounts appeared to be insignificant in determining the use of mobile money services in Botswana. However, the age of individuals did seem to be significant in determining whether an individual used mobile money services or not, with more young people preferring to use mobile money services than older people. The education of individuals generally did not show any influence on the preference to use mobile money services to access banking and financial services. Sex/gender was shown to be significant with more males than females using mobile money services. Employment status was also significant with more employed individuals preferring to use mobile money services to access banking and financial services than unemployed. This study has therefore shown that, despite the lower penetration and absorption of mobile banking services in Botswana, indicators are that mobile banking is increasingly being adopted in Botswana especially by males, employed individuals and the youth. This is encouraging since mobile banking has the potential to improve access to financial and banking services in Botswana.Master