| dc.description.abstract | The growing importance of the Internet world and technological innovations has become
a major catalyst for change in many business operations and processes including the
financial sector players. In fact, Internet-based concepts and technologies like ecommerce
and e-business are increasingly being used and adopted to enhance
productivity and efficiency. The financial sector has embraced the use and adoption of
modem and innovative Information and Communication Technologies such as e-banking
and m-banking thus enhancing the importance of technology in businesses. The financial
sector players are varied, ranging from commercial banks, MFI and Saccos, among many
others, with varied magnitudes and capacity to adopt and use modem and innovative
technologies. Kenya's MFIs need to adopt and use modem and innovative technology in
order to survive and compete in the domestic and global financial markets. However, to
implement and utilize modem and innovative technology requires that the MFls are eready,
hence the need to evaluate their e-readiness levels.
This research investigated the level of e-readiness in MFls in Kenya and developed an
appropriate framework for assessing the e-readiness levels of the MFls in order to
productively utilize modem and innovative technologies to achieve foreseen benefits and
opportunities. The framework was tested and validated with the data collected from MFIs
and their clients. The results indicated a clear and in-depth picture on the e-readiness
level of MFIs in Kenya and highlighted intervention areas. Most MFIs were found to be
not e-ready.
The study challenges included difficulty of finding necessary and appropriate data and
limited resources in terms of time and funds, which was complicated by the fact that data
in financial institutions is generally confidential. There is need for further research in this
area in order to generalize the findings. | en |
