Promoting Mobile Financial Transactions - A Case Study Zain Sierra Leone

Abstract: Title – Promoting Mobile Financial Transactions: A Case study of Zain Sierra Leone Author – Kesiena Atuyota-Ejughemre Supervisor - Anders Hederstierna Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Master’s thesis in business administration, 15 credits (ECTS). Background and Problem Discussion: There are challenges associated with overly cash based societies. The use of mobile financial systems could address some of these challenges. Understanding the factors that influence people’s willingness to use mobile systems for financial transactions could be significant in developing strategies to transition from traditional payment systems to mobile financial transaction systems. Purpose – The purpose of this is to assess contribution of customer trust and perception of customer focus to the willingness of GSM subscribers to use the mobile system for financial transactions and how the understanding derived from these factors can be used to develop strategies to promote a transition from cashed based society to mobile financial transactions. Method- Quantitative and deductive approach was used. 300 GSM respondents who were selected with a multistage sampling method in three locations were surveyed. Interviewers were used to get data on perceived customer focus level, customer trust and willingness to engage in mobile financial transactions. Theory – Theory section looks at the concepts relating to customer trust and customer perception of customer focus and pertinent subconstructs applicable to the engagement in mobile financial transactions. Analysis – I have used correlational analysis to verify the level of association between customer trust, customer focus perception, socio demographic factors and the willingness to engage in mobile financial transactions. In order to verify the influence of income, a non parametric test was done. Conclusions – The analysis of the data results showed that there is a strong positive association between the willingness to use mobile for financial transactions. Also, the analysis revealed a positive correlation between the perception of customer focus by subscribers and the willingness to engage in mobile financial transactions. There was no significant influence by demographic factors such as age and gender on the willingness to engage in mobile financial transactions. A 3 phased implementation strategy was proposed for the deployment of a mobile financial transaction system.