dc.description.abstract | This study focuses on mobile computing applications in SACCOs in Nairobi County.
SACCOs have become an integral part of the Kenya financial sector especially in providing
financial services to the unbankable population. Despite their tremendous growth and the
important role they play, they still face numerous challenges ranging from inadequate
capital, high operational cost, inefficiency, inadequate skills and liquidity issues among
others. To address some of these challenges and increase their competitive edge SACCOs
have invested in mobile computing application systems. This has enabled them to provide
SACCO products and services through mobile computing devices such as mobile phones.
However, the impact of mobile computing applications on operational performance in
SACCOs has not been studied well. Various related studies done have majorly focused on
mobile banking and financial performance. This opens a gap whereby this study seeks to
investigate mobile computing applications and operational performance in SACCOs. The
study addresses three objectives, the first two objectives explore the extent of use of mobile
computing in SACCOs and challenges faced by SACCOs while using mobile computing
applications. The third objective was to determine the relationship between mobile
computing applications and operational performance in SACCOs. A descriptive research
design was used. A census study was conducted on all the 45 SACCOs in Nairobi County
licenced by SASRA as at 31st December, 2017. A structured questionnaire was
administered targeting the IT managers in each SACCO for data collection. Data collected
was analysed through frequency, mean, percentages, standard deviation and regression
analysis. The study found that loans processing was the most used service of mobile
computing applications in SACCOs. While high cost of installation and maintenance was
the most challenging aspect of the technology. The study also found that mobile computing
applications have contributed to improvement in the quality of services. The study
recommends increased investment and utilization of mobile computing applications in
SACCOs, increase public awareness of the many SACCO services offered by mobile
computing applications for their optimum use and development of favorable government
policies to reduce the hardware and software cost aimed at reducing the acquisition and
maintenance cost of mobile computing applications. | en_US |