Abstract
This study focused on mobile money adoption by the unbanked and underbanked located in townships and investigates the factors that influence mobile money adoption. The study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that lead to mobile money usage and develop a proposed framework for potential mobile money service providers. The proposed framework was developed by addressing five sub-objectives, namely (1) to investigate the key characteristics of the unbanked and underbanked in informal settlements in a township, (2) to identify factors that influence the use of mobile money in informal settlements in a township, (3) to determine the role of age, gender and education in influencing mobile money use in informal settlements in a township, (4) to identify the key drivers of mobile money growth in informal settlements in a township, and (5) to propose an effective framework for mobile money usage that capturers both individual characteristics and environmental factors. The study employed a survey research approach to identify the key features and characteristics of unbanked and underbanked individuals. Quantitative data for the empirical investigation was collected through a survey questionnaire that contained closed-ended questions. A sample of 342 questionnaires were completed, representing a 91% response rate. The collected data were analysed using IBM SPSS based on the statistical techniques of correlation, regression, and cross-tabulation analysis. The study revealed that the key characteristics for the unbanked and underbanked located in townships are based on their main source of income, how they receive their income, accessibility to technologies, proximity to banking infrastructure, and the banking services they use. The study highlighted that inhibitive factors negatively influence mobile money adoption in townships. The study also identified facilitative factors, which promote the use of mobile money services, namely ease of use and perceived usefulness. Age and education were found to play a mediating role in the linkage between mobile money usage factors and the behavioural intention to use mobile money. Three factors that were found to influence the behavioural intention to adopt mobile money were usefulness, ease of use, and trust. Based on these findings, the study proposed a framework for mobile money adoption for use by prospective academics for enhanced knowledge generation and mobile money service providers who may be interested in expanding their services in the townships.
M.Com. (Applied Information Systems)