Financial Inclusion Strategies and Performance of Commercial Banks in Rwanda; A Case of I&M Bank in Rwanda

Abstract

The research intended to analyze the effect of financial inclusion strategies on performance of commercial banks in Rwanda, a case of I&M Bank Rwanda Ltd. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the effect of agency banking, financial innovation and loan products on financial performance of commercial banks in Rwanda and guided by three theories which are agency theory, constraint-induced theory and innovation theory. A sample size of 92 employees among 1,232 was taken and data was collected through questionnaires and interview guide. SPSS 23, descriptive research design, correlation and regression statistic were used in the analysis of collected data. The results of the study indicated that agency banking application is the important driver to facilitate people to get banking services form banks. The results established that agency banking and financial inclusion are satisfactory in explaining the performance of commercial banks. The coefficient of determination, also known as the R square, was 0.594 (59.4%). This implied that agency banking and financial inclusion strategies explain 59.4% of the variations in the performance of commercial banks. As conclusions, financial inclusion strategies analysed in this research play an important role in the performance of commercial banks in Rwanda. Financial institutions in Rwanda use financial inclusion strategies to boost their financial performances. Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is important and very effective because it facilitates the customers the access of their accounts to withdraw or deposit money as it is for digital banking, debit cards and smart cards. This enables banks to increase sales and influence its financial performance. For loan product, it is concluded that this is an important strategy of I&M Bank to attract customers thus affect the financial performance of the bank. The study recommended that I&M Bank has to improve its agency banking by increasing their number and location. I&M Bank has to extend its branches to remote areas and increase the number of ATMs so that people in remote areas get different financial services easily. Keywords: financial inclusion strategies, agency banking, financial performance, I&M Bank, Rwanda