The Effect of Mobile Transactions on the Financial Performance of Mutual Funds in Kenya
Abstract
Mobile telephony is among the momentous technological inventions in the world and has
tremendously changed the way business is transacted in Kenya. Mutual funds, just as
other financial institutions, have unearthed lucrative mobile transactions that seek to lure
both local and foreign investors. However, little has been empirically proven on how the
mobile transactions have affected the funds’ performance. Thus, the objective of the
study was to determine the effects of mobile transactions on financial performance of
mutual funds in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design which assumed a
correlation study approach. The target population was the 62 funds operators regulated by
the Capital Market Authority as at December 2013. However, the study selected five
mutual funds managers using convenient sampling who managed a total of fifteen mutual
funds. Secondary data was collected on average amount of mutual fund, number of
mobile transaction, amount of funds invested and Treasury bill rate from the funds’
annual reports and CBK offices for the periods 2009 to 2013. Descriptive analysis was
adopted whereby statistics such as mean, standard deviations, minimum and maximum
values, kurtosis and skewness assessed. Inferential analysis using multiple linear
regression models was used to determine the relationship between mobile transactions
and mutual funds’ performance. The results show the mutual funds experience returns as
high as 2.21 with a standard deviation of 1.26. The average number of mobile
transactions was 371.2 with a maximum of maximum of 3,402. The study concluded that
mobile transactions play a significant role in determining the financial performance of
mutual funds. Besides, large funds tended to perform better owing to economies of scale.
The study recommended that CMA to lobby for increased mutual fund amounts through
mobile transactions and fund managers to ensure good returns by investing in diversified
portfolios as different types of funds performed differently