The Nexus between Acceptance and Adoption of Internet Banking Services by Bank of Botswana Customers in Gaborone: A COVID-19 Perspective

Abstract

In the midst of the pandemic, adoption and use of internet banking has become a necessity and not a choice. However, there is still some reluctance by some banking customers in adopting online banking. Using a quantitative research design a sample of 125 bank customers of Bank of Botswana in Gaborone to investigate factors that impede the adoption of online banking a questionnaire adopted, Online Technology Acceptance Model was adopted to collect the data using the convenience sampling method. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was used to analyze the data. The study revealed a lacuna between adoption of the service and security concerns bordering on cyber fraud as some of the causes of non-adoption of using internet banking. Among the recommendations, it was suggested that banks should consider offering cheaper internet provision to their customers, reduction of overall online banking costs, provision of adequate information about internet banking services and benefits as well as embarking on aggressive advertising and marketing to ensure that the services were well known by the bank clientele. The study further recommended that Bank of Botswana should as a matter of urgency devise and implement strategies that would foster and increase customer trust in internet banking systems across the banking sector including the provision of training to their clients related to the use of internet banking. The implications of the study have far reaching consequences in the current dispensation where the whole world is affected by the COVID 19 pandemic when the adoption of internet banking has become a necessity in the “new normal”. Internet banking and online banking were used interchangeably in the study.