Contributions of agency banking on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya
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Date
2014-06-24
Authors
Njagi, Joyce Wawira
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Abstract
The revolution of information technology has influenced almost every facet of life, among them is the banking sector. Technological advancement has not only affected the way of living but has had an effect on the way people do their banking. The Kenya Bureau of Statistic Report (2011) indicates that more than 7 million adult rural Kenyans are either under-banked or unbanked. This is partly because of the high cost of maintaining the bank branches and the low nature of business transactions in rural Kenya - a situation which makes opening of new branches in the rural areas a less productive venture. Technology has therefore created greater opportunities to service providers to offer great flexibility to the customers. Agent banking involves a number of technologies in order for the financial institutions to keep track of the transactions done by the retail outlet. This study was guided by counsels of previous researches undertaken abroad in an effort to find out the contributions of agency banking on financial performance of the commercial banks in Kenya. This study adopted a descriptive survey. The population of the study was 9 Commercial Banks offering agency banking in Kenya. The study selected 4 senior managers from each bank thus forming a sample size of 36 respondents who was used in this study. Primary data was collected by administering a semi-structured questionnaire. To test the validity and reliability of the instrument that was used, pilot study was also conducted. Quantitative data collected was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics using SPSS (Version 20) and presented through percentages, means, standard deviations and frequencies. The information was displayed by use of bar charts, graphs and pie charts and in prose-form. Content analysis was used to test data that is qualitative in nature or aspect of the data collected from the open ended questions. The stduy found that the move by the central bank to regulate agency banking had a positive influence on the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study also found that low transaction cost through agency banking had a positive impact on the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study found that financial services accessibility by customers through baking agencies had a positive impact on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study found that increased market share had a positive effect on the financial performance of commercial banks with many banking institutions indicating that increased market share allowed a company to achieve greater scale in its operations which generally improved its profitability
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Department of Accounting and Finance, 59p. 2013