News

See all

DBA defense at MSM: Mobile Banking in Tanzania

27-02-2018

“The DBA program has changed my life for good. I managed to go through the challenges in data collection, data cleaning, data analysis and finally in writing my final thesis report while enjoying the strong support my supervisor gave me. I recommend the MSM DBA program as it gave me an excellent academic experience and the program has enabled me to help my country develop economically, socially, politically and culturally”.

This said Mr. George Nyaronga after successfully defending his DBA-thesis titled: Factors Facilitating/Hindering Adoption of Mobile Banking in Tanzania: Multiple Case Studies at MSM on 23 February 2018.

Mr. Nyaronga’s thesis was geared at finding a model in Tanzania that can be used to understand and predict ways in which financial inclusion efforts should be directed to ensure that all households and businesses regardless of their income levels, have access and can effectively use financial services to improve their lives.

The DBA thesis addresses the fact that currently the world’s poor live and work in the informal economy, despite the fact that they have little money, they still save, borrow and manage day to day expenses. However, without access to a bank, savings account, debit card, insurance, or credit, they do not have options except to rely on informal sources of accessing money which includes friends and family members hence exposing themselves to sources that are insufficient, risky, expensive and unpredictable.

Formal financial inclusion to the working aged adult population which is attained through mobile banking platforms helps people to improve their welfare through many ways such as making day to day transactions like sending and receiving money, safeguarding savings to help manage cash flow spikes, smooth consumption and building working capital. In addition, formal financial inclusion helps people in financing small businesses, investing in assets and growing businesses, planning and paying recurring expenses, mitigating shocks as well as managing expenses related to unexpected events such as natural disasters and calamities.

Benefits of formal financial inclusion extends beyond significant impact to individuals; it affects even the economic growth of a country. Formal financial services inclusion through mobile banking services platforms enables the poorest and most vulnerable in society to step out of poverty; it reduces the inequality in society. Eventually, it helps to collectively develop local communities; hence, drive economic growth of a country. In Mr. Nyaronga’s research work it was discovered that key areas that every mobile banking service provider needs to put in place for people to use mobile banking services are innovation, security & privacy, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness.

Back to overview