Relationship Between the Adoption of Mobile Banking Services and the Income Levels of the Kenyan Population

Abstract

The study‟s objective was to investigate the relationship between the adoption of mobile banking and the income levels of the Kenyan population. The research followed a quantitative research methodology. Quantitative research was used to provide numerical measurement and analysis of the adoption dynamic. Survey questionnaires were used for standardization purposes to allow for aggregation of the results. The population for this study was therefore the entire Kenyan population which stood at 41.61 million by 2011. The researcher utilized a multi-stage probabilistic sampling technique. First, simple random sampling was used to select one county from among the 47 counties in Kenya which were the primary unit. Simple random sampling was then employed on the sampled county to obtain the secondary units, who were the respondents in this study. A paper-based survey questionnaire was prepared and distributed to the randomly selected respondents. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. Inferential analysis was done using Pearson Correlation analysis to determine the linear relationship between effects. The dependent variable in this study was the adoption of mobile banking which was measured by the average amount of money transacted through mobile banking per month, while the independent variables were income levels which were measured using business income, employment income and other income which covered farming income, rental income, interest income and income from insurance commission. Findings indicated that there was positive relationship between monthly other income which covered farming income, rental income, interest income and income from insurance commission and adoption of mobile banking by the Kenya population. Monthly business income and monthly employment income had a negative relationship with the adoption of mobile banking by the Kenyan population. The researcher made several recommendations including but not limited to that mobile service providers should ensure that their mobile banking services are safe by adopting cutting edge technology that provides ultimate security within their systems as majority of the Kenyan population would use mobile banking if the safety of their money can be guaranteed; and should increase the user features of the mobile banking service and promote user knowledge among the entire Kenyan population as findings indicate that all income groups of the Kenyan population had an equal likelihood of using mobile banking.