Customer Perception On The Contribution Of Mobile Financial Services To Rural Livelihoods: A Case Study In Handeni

ABSTRACT

The explosive growth of use of mobile money has had the unintended benefit of increasing public involvement in the formal financial system, including expansion of savings accounts in the regulated financial intermediaries. In additional to those funds transferred to people living in remote areas help them to purchase basic needs. To the farmers and other business people use mobile financial to sell and purchase inputs to their activities. The study was undertaken in order to assess customer perception on the contribution of mobile financial services to rural livelihoods in Handeni District Council. The study used a descriptive cross sectional design; about 194 customers in Handeni District were surveyed between June and July 2016. The surveying tools were pretested before actual data collection. Collected data was entered into Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Version 16). Descriptive and exploratory analyses have been done and tables and figures have been used to present the results. The findings are majority of the people have a positive attitude toward the contribution of the mobile financial services in the rural livelihood. Mobile financial services have resulted into the improvement in relationships/contacts with friends/relatives, help in case of emergencies, improvement in transport and improvement in the market information for agricultural/livestock produce. However a number of challenges such as low level of knowledge on using mobile, net work connections, and perceived risk have been identified. Overall mobile financial services have lead to the enhancement in the rural live hood.