Abstract
The history of mobile payments is more than 10 years old and mobile money services in various countries such as Finland are still relatively unpopular, even though consumers have shown clear interest towards mobile money. The Mobile phone banking idea was initially born out of the intention to reach the unbanked poor. There exist a spectacular mobile phone money service divide, highly skewed against the rural population. The study therefore, established mobile phone elements enhancing mobile money services, in Homa Bay Region. A sample size of 48 participants for semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion and participant observation was used. The data for the study was both primary and secondary. Interview was the main tool for primary data collection, supported by focus group discussion and participant observation, while secondary data was obtained from online journals, books and Daily Newspapers. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The study established that remittances had a positive influence on mobile phone money use, while lack of National Identification cards as well as lack of information by some users had a negative influence on mobile phone money use in the study area.
Highlights
The history of mobile payments is more than 10 years old and mobile money services in various countries such as Finland are still relatively unpopular, even though consumers have shown clear interest towards mobile money
In all the three sub counties that the researcher conducted the study namely Homa Bay Town, Rangwe and Ndhiwa, it was quite clear that this element was common to the youths as well as the old, to the rich as well as the poor, to the literate, as well the illiterate and to the people in the urban areas as well as the people in the rural areas
An interview conducted in Rangwe market center with a participant, found out that sending money to friends and relatives in other places as well as receiving money using mobile phone money was very common as can be seen from the words of the participant
Summary
The history of mobile payments is more than 10 years old and mobile money services in various countries such as Finland are still relatively unpopular, even though consumers have shown clear interest towards mobile money. In the U.S, a study [1] to better understand Americans’ attitudes towards privacy in new transaction systems commissioned a nationwide, telephonic (wireline and wireless) survey of 1,200 households, focusing upon the ways that mobile money systems are likely to share information about consumers’ purchases. The study established that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the revelation of contact information such as; phone number, email address, and home address, to sellers when making purchases with mobile money systems. An even higher level of opposition existed to systems that track consumers’ movements through their mobile phones. This is an indication that consumers are not comfortable having their information shared. They would strongly resist any innovation that tends to propagate this
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