Abstract
Purpose—This research discusses emerging trends in financial inclusion, barriers and factors influencing mobile banking as an innovative solution for increasing financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with a specific focus on Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach—Using a qualitative meta-synthesis (QMS), an interpretivist research paradigm, authors provide an analytical tool for understanding the subject of inquiry by integrating findings from previous studies and relevant data from the reports of the Central Bank of Nigeria on emerging trends in financial inclusion. Findings—Three major factors emerged as drivers of mobile banking in Nigeria: (a) the ease of using mobile devices for personal banking transactions including prompt information about users’ financial transactions (savings and withdrawals) immediately through SMS (short message service) alert (easy management of my account); (b) the security/safety concerns of theft and cyber fraud; (c) social influence of friends, relatives, policy makers and social trends. Implications—In contextualizing mobile banking in SSA and in Nigeria in particular, this paper contributes to exploring the growth in the use of mobile banking by linking it with the “value in use” (VIU) perspective. This approach of the service dominant logic involves three sub-constructs (experience, personalization, and relationship), which all validate and support the proposed assertion that mobile banking is adopted by users because of utility expectancy (perceived usefulness), effort expectancy (perceived ease of use), and social influence expectancy (opinions of friends/relatives). Originality/value—This research, although qualitative in nature, validates information technology (IT) adoption theories/perspectives and enriches the “value in use” approach.
Highlights
The global economy faces extreme poverty, slower growth, climate change, widening inequalities, unemployment, and growing inconstant working conditions, but the plight of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is worse because more than 204 million people are unemployed, and the worsening unemployment situation provides breeding grounds for forced labour, slavery and human trafficking [1]
Leveraging on the qualitative meta-synthesis, the findings that emerged could be classified into emerging trends on financial inclusion and the barriers and factors that influenced the adoption of mobile banking in Nigeria
On the emerging trends of financial inclusion in connection with mobile banking, the research found that several attempts have been made by the government to improve financial inclusion in the country through a number of public-sector led credit schemes such National Economy Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND); the People’s Bank, Community Banking Models, the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), the Bank of Industry (BOI), the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme (SMEEIS), National Poverty Eradication Programme, Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (You Win) Programme, Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme or Subsidy Reinvestment & Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), National Enterprise Development Programme or NEDEP and several others (Table 3)
Summary
The global economy faces extreme poverty, slower growth, climate change, widening inequalities, unemployment, and growing inconstant working conditions, but the plight of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is worse because more than 204 million people are unemployed, and the worsening unemployment situation provides breeding grounds for forced labour, slavery and human trafficking [1]. In the midst of the economic crisis explicated above, the people and businesses in the area, including Nigeria, suffer an extremely low level of financial inclusion [3,4]. The goals of fighting extreme poverty foundationally (MDG1); achieving gender equality to promote equal opportunities for women to access employment, social protection, and training (MDG3); and forging a global partnership for development (MDG 8) directly address financial inclusion challenges. The targets of the ongoing SDGs that directly impact on financial inclusion include: no poverty (SDG1), zero hunger (SDG2), good health and wellbeing (SDG3), quality education (SDG4), decent work and economic growth (SDG8), industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG9), reduced inequality (SDG10), peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG16) and partnerships for the goals (SDG17)
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