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The convergence of mobile telephony and financial services has the potential to significantly expand access to financial services for individuals at the base of the pyramid. According to the World Bank, 75 percent of the 3 billion poor people in the world do not have a bank account. Mobile Phone Money Transfer, a financial service and transaction made on a mobile phone, could significantly fill this financial gap.
We conducted the study to describe the use, challenges, barriers and opportunities of mobile phone money users in Dar es Salaam. Specifically the study has described the characteristics and experience of mobile money services to users in Dar es Salaam, described and compared mobile phone money services among mobile phone service providers and identified the challenges experienced by users of mobile money services.
Descriptive cross sectional study design was deployed, where primary and secondary data were used, in the primary data face to face interview with the user of mobile phone was conducted using structured questionnaire. Secondary data were also collected, this involved systematic identification, location and analysis of documents containing information related to the mobile phone money services.
The number of registered mobile customers surged from 14,000 in June 2008, to 19.4 million in 2011, to 20.4 million in November 2012 worldwide, money stored in mobile accounts increased from Sh3 billion in June 2009 to Sh157.8 billion in November 2012 in Tanzania. Total 150 participants were interviewed. The distribution by sex was 72(48%) male and 78(52%) female; with mean age of 31.7 and 8.9 respectively.
Most people who use mobile phone money services have bank account, and few have been connected to their mobile phone money services such that they can check their account balance and make money transfer from bank to mobile phone and vice versa. The common challenges cited are agents’ absenteeism and insufficient e-float or cash to help with a transaction. |
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