Factors affecting mobile money use amongst SMEs

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting mobile money use amongst SMEs in Wandegeya. It used primary data that was collected through an online questionnaire guide that was SME operators. Analysis was done using frequency distribution, chisquare and binary logistic regression to analyse the joint effect of the independent variables on the use of mobile money amongst SMEs. In the findings, nearly half of the respondents were between the age of 35 to 44 years followed by those between 45 to 54 years old (17.7%), those who were 50 years and above were less than quarter (10.4%). Furthermore, nearly half of the respondents (44.8%) had attained the secondary education level, those who had attained the tertiary education level were slightly more than a third of the respondents (39.6%), the respondents who had attained up to the primary education level were less than a quarter of the sampled number(11.5%) and the rest had not attained any education level. Additionally, slightly more than a third of the respondents (36.5%) had years of business operational experience of between 1 to 3 years, followed by those with an experience of less than 1 year who were nearly a quarter of the respondents (22.9%). Less than a quarter of the respondents (16.7%) had an experience of between 7 to 10 years operating in the business of mobile money use. Those with an experience of 4 to 6 years accounted for 12.5% and the rest had an experience of more than 10 years. The findings revealed that more than a third of the respondents (39.6%) had a business size of 1 to 2 workers, followed by those who had 3 to 4 workers which was slightly more than a quarter of the respondents (26%). Nearly a quarter of the respondents (21.9%) had more than 5 workers in their businesses and the rest of the respondents did not employ any worker. Of those who were interviewed, slightly more than a third of them (35.4%) were likely to recommend other people to use mobile money in their business transactions and other activities. In the multivariate analysis, the use of mobile money amongst SMEs was directly influenced by gender (OR=28.08), education level (OR=0.00003), operational experience (OR=0.003), business size (OR=4119.38), SME attitude (recommend OR=0.02).The results indicated a need to improve and boast the use of mobile money in the daily transactions of SMEs in Wandegeya. To increase the awareness among SME operators through sensitization and education on the relevance of the use of mobile money in small businesses. The Uganda communications commission in partnership with service providers institutions to come up with policies like offering discounts to some premium users of mobile money. This may increase and favor the use of mobile money among SMEs.