Determinants of Choice of Mobile Money Transfer Service Providers in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

In the developing world telecommunication sector has developed widely. Such development includes Mobile Money Transfer Service (MMTS), transfer of money using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) framework and Mobile Network Operators (MNO). Policy makers and cell phone organizations have all touted the capability of cell phones to eradicate poverty. Mobile innovation has kept on reforming banking and payment frameworks in Kenya, with arrangement of utilizations that empowers assorted mobile money transfer services (MMTS). In Kenya there are several mobile money transfer service provider. Various studies done reveals that users choose different mobile money transfer service provider. The objective of this study was to determine the factors that determine the choice of mobile money transfer service provider. The study adopted Multinomial Logit regression. The marginal effects results revealed that variables; ease of access, cost of transaction and convenience were significant in all the three models estimated representing the three service providers with one dominant service provider being the reference category. However, variables age, number of mobile phones and gender were not significant all along in determining the choice of MMTS service provider across the different service providers. Based on key findings, this study recommends increase in the number of money agents outlets by each service provider with smaller market shares to ease access, aggressive advertising to raise awareness of the existence of specific providers and to take high consideration before making any transaction costs reviews as households were found to be highly responsive to transaction costs.