Factors affecting mobile money use in rural areas

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the variables that influence the use of mobile money in rural areas. Following a review of the literature, I made the decision to use a dataset from Finscope that contained variables for my research. I took out 20 variables that matched my goal and used Stata to later glean insights for the investigation. I discovered that a questionnaire was utilized as the method to gather this secondary data. The sample included the users and non-users of mobile financial services in rural areas of Uganda. The 2018 Finscope data utilized in the study covered 3003 families across all rural districts in Uganda. For this experiment, a sample of 1,382 households was considered. The analysis goes through four steps. At the cleaning, univariate, bivariate, and multivariate stages of analysis, a binary logistic model is used to provide the determinants of mobile money use over the previous 12 months. The majority of respondents (52.03 percent) are seen to have had no mobile phones or utilized mobile money in the previous year, while a sizable minority of respondents (2.82 percent) are shown to have owned more than three mobile phones. Only 3.73 percent of respondents without utility accounts have at least paid these bills on behalf of others and are aware of the issue, despite not having an account themselves. The vast majority of respondents (98.77%) do not have any utility bills for power, DSTV, or Startimes, and a sizable portion (98.79%) are unaware of the existence of mobile money agents for bill payment. 67.51 percent of the female respondents were determined to be illiterate, or unable to read and write, compared to 29.9 percent of the male respondents. The study finds that most of the rural households’ respondents have no mobile phones which is resulting in less awareness of the people towards the benefits mobile money. In addition, this a need to provide more mobile money agents and sensitization about the uses of mobile money should be a priority of the Mobile Network Operators as well the policy makers in the country. Adoption of Digital Technologies will be substantial towards the promotion of financial inclusion.