No Kenyan Left Behind: the Model of Financial Inclusion Through Mobile Banking
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The importance of widespread access to suitable financial services for the populace in fostering economic vitality is well recognized. Regrettably, much of the developing world experiences a relative scarcity of crucial financial services in rural and semi-urban areas. With estimated mobile devise ownership at over 700 million in Africa, innovative banking solutions such as mobile banking offer potential channels to advance the access frontier in the banking industry. This study examines Kenya’s highly successful money transfer model, M-pesa, in an effort to explore the nature and role of financial inclusiveness in stimulating economic activity. M-pesa allows ordinary Kenyans to send money across the country cheaply and reliably using mobile devises. As such, the stage appears set for a mass adoption by similarly situated countries in the region that are keen to enhance their financial services. Understanding the nature and role of economic dynamism dispensed through financial inclusiveness can be useful for policy prescription and future studies, among other things. To this end, we borrow from a combination of the ideas of velocity circulation of money and a simple diffusion model to develop a framework for empirical study.
Author: Tony Mutsune
Institution: Iowa Wesleyan College
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3121749123