- Project report
Promoting adoption of new mobile payment services
Busara
- March 10, 2017
- 1:20 pm
SECTOR
PROJECT TYPE
DOI
Location
BEHAVIORAL THEME
OVERVIEW
Can targeted messaging encourage switching of digital financial services?
The growth of retail banking in Kenya has rapidly generated numerous channels to provide services. However, the competitive pressures generate gaps and subsequent inequality: more than three quarters of the ATMs in the country are not accessible to average bank customers, and proprietary agent networks are exclusive, calling for more integrated, interoperable money transfer services. This project sought to test this new platform’s barriers to adoption in order to identify a comprehensive scale–up strategy.
THEMATIC AREAS
MPESA has had a tremendous impact on the rate of financial inclusion and poverty alleviation in Kenya (Jack and Suri, 20161), but in certain use cases alternatives may be a better option for consumers. Beyond the obvious barriers of limited attention and competing priorities for digital users‘ time, the prevailing ubiquity of MPESA may have a significant impact on willingness to engage with a new digital payments platform.