dc.description.abstract | ABSTRACT
With the growth of agency banking as one of the smallest units of financial institutions to
disseminate services to the customers, there have been issues as well as challenges
associated with their optimisation and effective usage. Therefore, this research purposes
to investigate the contribution of agency banking to the growth of small and medium
enterprises in Kenya through studying a case of Igembe North Sub County - Meru
County. The problem of variation and inadequate services in terms of physical resources,
human capital and even latest technologies have contributed to challenges in growth of
SMEs, thus this research utilises the following objectives to study this phenomenon; To
evaluate the characteristics of SMEs in Igembe North Sub-County; To establish factors
that influences the growth and sustainability of SMEs in Igembe North Sub-County; To
ascertain the factors that influences the growth and adoption of agency banking within
SMEs in Igembe North Sub-County and finally. In the effort to synthesise these aspects
amicably, this research utilised Agency theory, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Theory
and Diffusion of Innovations Theory to try creating a deeper perspectives of the topical
issue and shade light to the antecedents that formed the in-depth understanding. For
effective data sourcing, this research utilised a pragmatic approach which necessitated the
use of both quantitative and qualitative datasets to increase data accuracy and
representability. Case study strategy was used where Igembe Sub County was used and
interviews and questionnaires data collection instruments were utilised too. Accordingly,
both statistical and content analysis method of data analysis was used to cater for the
pragmatic nature of this study. Data findings established that, accessibility to credit is the
factor that contributes highly to the growth of the SMEs, secured transactional platform
was seen to be the key aspect which has made agency banking to become popular, while
lacking adequate features being still the biggest concern and challenge both agents and
users of this platform has in regard to agency banking in Igembe North. The following
recommendations were proposed; enhancing latest security technologies to combat acts
of hacking and increasing effectiveness, embracing adequate training to agents to
increase customer relationship and service delivery and lastly liquidity issues must be
made part of the minimum threshold requirements. | en_US |