Abstract
This study examines the effect of mobile technologies on the choice of self-employment in Kenya. The study used the 2016 household FinAccess retail survey data, which was collected using stratified multi-stage sampling to ensure representativeness at the national, regional, and residence (urban vs rural) levels. A probit model was used to analyse the data. The study finds that mobile phones, mobile money, mobile banking, and mobile credit influence one’s decision to become self-employed. Other contributing factors include age, gender, marital status, education, wealth, place of residence, and the number of dependents in the household. These findings suggest that entrepreneurship policy in Kenya will have greater impact by enhancing access to mobile technologies.
Highlights
Unemployment remains a major challenge in Kenya
This means that individuals who use mobile phones have 11% points higher probability of being self-employed relative to those who do not use this form of mobile technology
This study sought to examine the effect of mobile phones, mobile money, mobile banking, and mobile credit on self-employment in Kenya
Summary
World Bank data shows that Kenya’s unemployment rate has increased from 10.2% in 1991 to 11.5% in 2015 compared to the global unemployment rate which has fallen from 5.6% in 1991 to 5.4% in 2015 This shows that the trend in unemployment in Kenya is at variance with the global trend. Recent strategies of understanding how to address unemployment include examining how mobile technologies can be harnessed to promote self-employment in developing countries (Aker & Mbiti, 2010). This is because mobile technologies provide opportunities that enable the user to either start a business or run one (Bhavnani, Won-Wai, Janakiram, & Silarszky, 2008)
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