| dc.description.abstract | Financial inclusion is an important priority in the development programs of Kenya and
other countries across the world due to its ability to ensure all bankable citizens in a
country get to participate in main financial drive towards the economic development of
the countries from the financial perspective. This study was, therefore, designed with the
objective of establishing effectiveness of mobile banking as a strategy of financial
inclusion in Kenya. The specific objectives were: to determine the effect of mobile
banking strategy on the access to financial services; to establish how mobile banking
strategy contributes to the usage of financial services and to establish how mobile
banking strategy contributes to the quality of financial services. This study was a survey
that focused on the 30 commercial banks in Kenya that had adopted mobile banking. The
primary data used for the study was collected by a self-administered questionnaire. the
data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings indicate that mobile
telephony has improved the access to commercial banking financial services by
customers. This is seen through improved awareness of all the products they can access
by mobile devices; increased frequency of access to accounts, the twenty-four-hour
access to accounts, the cheapness of the use of mobile banking and the increase in the
number of clients with informal accounts managed through mobile devices. The use of
mobile devices has improved usage of financial services provided by commercial banks.
For instance, most clients now check their financial statements using mobile devices; the
use of mobile banking is more preferred to traditional banking; the variety of banking
services provided through mobile banking has widened. Now most banking services can
be accessed by mobile banking. Mobile baking has improved the quality of services
provided by commercial banks. This is seen through improved willingness and readiness
of employees to provide services in an effective manner. It is also seen through the high
levels of customers’ awareness of the banking services available to them through mobile
banking. Customers are increasingly trusting the use of mobile banking to conduct
transactions and banks now better understand the needs of the customers. The study
recommends that the use of mobile banking should be widened in intensity of use to
enable customers to have more freedom and frequency in accessing the services provided
by commercial banks through mobile banking. There should be widening of the segments
of the clients that have access to financial services and the percentage of customers using
mobile banking vis-à-vis traditional banking. Using mobile banking for lending and the
frequency of accessing financial services should be strengthen. | en_US |
