A roadmap for the adoption of government e-payments in Kenya

Abstract

Analogous to the motorists’ roadmap that shows roads, directions and distances to a destination of a given region, A roadmap in this context is a detailed guideline that answers the “why-what-how" questions and lay out the required actions, the "to-do's." towards adoption of e-payments in the government of Kenya. For over a decade, the government of Kenya grappled with the idea of implementing a national payment gateway through which all payments for government services, levies, duties, and fines were to be electronically made. For a long period, industry players and policy makers in government had unsuccessfully developed varied strategies of achieving a cashless government payment system. These efforts failed to yield due to lack of a comprehensive roadmap that addressed pertinent issues that had to be dealt with for e-payments in government to be fully adopted. This research was done by conducting a survey study on the government of Kenya about the adoption of e-payments. A random sample of the research population was drawn from ICT and Finance employees of 262 state corporations, 19 Ministries, and 47 counties to which a questionnaire was administered to gain an understanding and information on why there had been low uptake of e-payments in the government of Kenya. The data collected was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using descriptive statistical techniques. The results from these analyses have been used to propose a roadmap for the adoption of e-payments in the government of Kenya and any other similar setting.