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Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini

Dissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2020.

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Other Authors: Makhura, Moraka N.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Makhura, Moraka N.
author_browse Makhura, Moraka N.
author_facet Makhura, Moraka N.
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2020.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/75188 Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini Makhura, Moraka N. u17247650@tuks.co.za Dlamini, Theophilus Lusito Mobile Money Branchless Banking Financial Inclusion UCTD Dissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2020. The conventional banking system has not been meeting the needs of the mass market in Eswatini, which is mostly made of unserved and underserved farmers in rural areas. Mobile money and other recent innovations in fintech present a potential to address the financial exclusion amongst financially marginalised groups in Eswatini. Only 44% of adult Emaswati are formally banked. In a mission to improve financial inclusion, Eswatini MTN introduced mobile money to provide formal financial services for financially excluded groups. This study sought to determine the factors that influence mobile money’s adoption by farming households in rural areas of Eswatini. Knowledge of such factors is crucial in formulating policies geared towards financial inclusion in the country. The study used survey data collected from 160 randomly selected rural farmers from the Lomahasha Inkundla in the Lubombo region of Eswatini. The results of the descriptive statistics show that 93.1% of sampled farmers have knowledge of mobile money, 80% were registered mobile money users, whilst 67% of the non-registered farmers indicated a positive intention to open a mobile money account. A majority (61.3%) of respondents were male. The typical farmer’s age was 43 years old. Farmers without formal education accounted for 16.9% of the sample. About 58.8% of respondents held bank accounts, whilst 40% were members of Savings and Credit and Cooperatives (SACCOs). Trust as an informal institution against moral hazard is quite strong across the mobile money value chain. Most farmers believe that the system is safe and secure. Interpersonal trust between agents and customers is very strong. Users perceive the financial service to be useful, with a majority of the registered users utilizing mobile money for settling utility bills and executing peer to peer transfers. The study developed a set of binary logistic regression models to determine the factors that significantly influence the decisions of farmers to adopt mobile money. Evidence from the results show that, socioeconomic characteristics of farmers have a significant influence on the decisions for adoption of mobile money. Gender, education, ownership of a formal bank account and farming experience were found to significantly influence the decisions for mobile money adoption. The odds of mobile money adoption were higher for female farmers than male farmers. The odds for adoption were also found to be higher for farmers with formal education beyond Primary school. So were the banked farmers as compared to unbanked farmers. The innovation has evidently shown some prospects to significantly improve the level of financial inclusion in Eswatini. In the study sample, the overall result of financial inclusion was 61.3% before accounting for mobile money adoption, this improves to 80% when we account for active mobile money accounts. The results also show that the fintech is complementary to the conventional banking system. The study recommends that the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) incorporates financial literacy training in their strategy to capacitate mobile money users and prospective adopters. It is also recommended that formal financial institutions leverage potential linkages with informal finance organisations and self-help groups i.e. SACCOs, ASCAs and ROSCAs. However, it’s imperative to approach this with caution so to avoid any over-formalization which might threaten the existence of the informal financial sector in the rural areas. Keywords: Adoption, binary logistic, branchless banking, Eswatini, financial inclusion, fintech, mobile money African Economic Research Consortium Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics) Unrestricted 2020-07-13T14:01:58Z 2020-07-13T14:01:58Z 2020-09 2020-07-13 Mini Dissertation * S2020 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/75188 en © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Mobile Money
Branchless Banking
Financial Inclusion
UCTD
Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini
title Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini
title_full Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini
title_fullStr Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini
title_full_unstemmed Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini
title_short Factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in Lomahasha Inkundla of the Lubombo Region, Eswatini
title_sort factors affecting adoption of mobile money by farming households in lomahasha inkundla of the lubombo region eswatini
topic Mobile Money
Branchless Banking
Financial Inclusion
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/75188