E-Business Adoption in the Banking Industry: A Case Study on Barclays Bank, Nkawkaw

ABSTRACT

This research investigates E-Business adoption in the banking industry using Barclays Bank Nkawkaw Branch in the Eastern Region of Ghana as the research case.

The research aims at identifying the benefits of adopting e-business, the barriers that will prevent firms from enjoying the benefits, and the challenges faced by organisations when adopting e-business, in recent days where due to the rising global economy, electronic business has become a necessary module of business strategy in financial institutions.

The null hypothesis assumed that; the banking industry in Ghana without the integration of e-business such as ATMs, electronic funds transfer, electronic smart cards, and cell phone banking among others made banking activities tedious, slow, and inconvenient. Whereas an alternative hypothesis was based on the fact that, the adoption of E-Business in the banking industry in Ghana through the use of ATMs, electronic fund transfer, electronic smart cards, and cell phone banking among others has made banking easier, faster, and convenient.

For the purpose of the research, the primary source of obtaining information was employed thus through questionnaires and interview, the secondary source constituted of information from published books, articles, official records from the internet, and reviewing existing literature on the study topic. Charts and tables were used in the analysis and interpretations of the response from the questionnaires and interview.

The research result reveals that widely used e-business products adopted by banks are the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Mobile Banking, Credit Cards, Direct Deposit, SMS Alert, Internet Banking, and e-zwich (An electronic payment system).

The findings indicate that the major benefits to the banking industry sector from adoption of E-business are, increased sales, business efficiency, competitive advantage, increased automation of processes and retained and increased customer base, and increase in turnover. Despite the supposed benefits of e-business in the banking industry, the research reveals certain barriers which will prevent a firm from taking advantage of the module; cost factors such as cost of IT equipment and network, software reorganisation, lack of ICT qualified personnel, and security factors were some of the barriers to e-business adoption.

The key challenges identified for the sector include the costs of the technology, lack of e-commerce knowledge, acquiring IT skilled personnel, and the lack of familiarity of the products in use

The study recommended that Management must put in mechanisms to solve the problem of late response by service providers. Therefore there should be an IT department in the branch.

Lack of technical know-how is a challenge to the organization; the study recommends seminars and training on the operation of the systems used for employees. Again the organization should review their target customers to give low-income earners the opportunity to do business with their organisation.

Despite the challenges faced by the researcher in the data analysis and interpretation the study was carried out successfully.