Mobile Computing Applications and Operational Performance of Saccos in Nairobi County

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.