Commercial banks’ perception of the influence of mobile telephones on growth of banking business in Kenya

Abstract

One of the major challenges in the banking industry is the dynamic competitive environment in which banks operate. This has compelled commercial banks to adopt strategies around Internet banking, mobile banking and prestige banking. Although commercial banks use various strategies to position themselves in the market, it is not known the perception of commercial banks’ to the influence of mobile telephones on growth of banking business in Kenya. The objective of this research was to determine how commercial banks perceive the influence of mobile phones on growth of commercial banking business in Kenya. The study was modeled on a descriptive design. The population of interest in this study consisted of forty-five commercial banks. No sampling was done, as a census of all the commercial banks operating in Kenya was considered. The population of forty-five commercial banks was small enough to accommodate a census study and give a clearer picture of the findings that is used to arrive at justified generalizations on the findings from the study. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The questionnaires were personally administered by the researcher to the commercial banks managers or equivalent. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. Part A contained questions on general information of the respondents. Part B contained questions on mobile banking and business strategies and Part C contained questions on how commercial banks perceive the influence of mobile phones on growth of commercial banking business in Kenya. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that majority of the commercial banks do offer services through the customers’ mobile phones. It can also be concluded that commercial banks use mobile services for purposes of accounts request and the maintenance of high quality service is extremely important for the commercial banks in the Kenyan banking industry. Commercial banks management should change their perception on cost leadership, market share leadership and technology leadership in order to take advantage of the mobile banking technology in the growth of the banking industry