Perception Of Subscribers On The Use Of Mobile-Phone Based Financial Services: A Study Of Dodoma Urban

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out in Dodoma, Tanzania to find out the Perception of Subscribers of the Use of Mobile-phone based Financial Services. It described the factors that influence the use of mobile based financial services. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods through questionnaire and semi structured interviews. A simple random sampling design was used to select respondents from the clients and purposive sampling was used to select respondents from staffs. The study covered 96 respondents of which, their responses were analyzed using a computer package of SPSS.

The findings of this study, however, indicate that the widely used mobile phone financial services include Mpesa, Tigopesa, Airtel Money and EzyPesa. The study find that the most widely used service is M-pesa. It was revealed that subscribers use these mobile phone financial services not only for sending money to family or friends but also for money savings (like MPawa and Wekeza Maisha), payment of utility bills, payment of school fees, airtime top ups as well as payment of goods and services. Also the study revealed that most of the services had transaction cost.

The study recommended that given the competitive nature of the telecommunication industry, the banking industry with the Bank of Tanzania should capitalize on this finding to eliminate customers‟ misconception through sensitizing the community that mobile banking was not a preserve for a few who have it. They should put a lot of emphasize in planning promotional programs. Also mobile phone based financial services providers should lower the transaction costs to influence more customers to join