IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea22/322294.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mobile Money Adoption in Kenya: The Role of Mobile Money Agents

Author

Listed:
  • Johnen, Constantin
  • Musshoff, Oliver
  • Parlasca, Martin C.

Abstract

It has been frequently shown that the proximity of households to mobile money agents is a decisive factor for the adoption of mobile money. However, merely measuring the distance to agents overshadows the fact that agents are a heterogenous group, offering different services and abilities to costumers; differences, which could affect mobile money adoption. The present study therefore investigates, under the lens of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM), how agent characteristics affect mobile money adoption, using georeferenced data from a nationally representative Kenyan household survey and a census of all mobile money agents in Kenya. Results from logistic regressions show that people are statistically significantly more likely to adopt mobile money, if nearby agents offer account opening services, or if nearby agents have received formal training. The study further shows that agent training is particularly important for mobile money adoption among people without formal education. Considering that only 59 % of agents offer account opening services and only 58 % of the agents are formally trained, this article points towards a large potential for mobile money lenders and policy makers to foster financial inclusion in the future.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Johnen, Constantin & Musshoff, Oliver & Parlasca, Martin C., 2022. "Mobile Money Adoption in Kenya: The Role of Mobile Money Agents," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 322294, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea22:322294
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.322294
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/322294/files/23054.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.322294?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2020. "Adopting Mobile Money: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural Africa," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 594-598, May.
    2. Munyegera, Ggombe Kasim & Matsumoto, Tomoya, 2016. "Mobile Money, Remittances, and Household Welfare: Panel Evidence from Rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 127-137.
    3. Carlos Cinelli & Chad Hazlett, 2020. "Making sense of sensitivity: extending omitted variable bias," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 82(1), pages 39-67, February.
    4. William Jack & Tavneet Suri, 2014. "Risk Sharing and Transactions Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 183-223, January.
    5. Jean N. Lee & Jonathan Morduch & Saravana Ravindran & Abu Shonchoy & Hassan Zaman, 2021. "Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 38-71, January.
    6. Anthony Amoah & Kofi Korle & Rexford Kweku Asiama, 2020. "Mobile money as a financial inclusion instrument: what are the determinants?," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(10), pages 1283-1297, August.
    7. Otterbach, Steffen & Oskorouchi, Hamid Reza & Rogan, Michael & Qaim, Matin, 2021. "Using Google data to measure the role of Big Food and fast food in South Africa’s obesity epidemic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    8. Cull, Robert & Gine, Xavier & Harten, Sven & Heitmann, Soren & Rusu, Anca Bogdana, 2018. "Agent banking in a highly under-developed financial sector: Evidence from Democratic Republic of Congo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 54-74.
    9. Riley, Emma, 2018. "Mobile money and risk sharing against village shocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 43-58.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Apeti, Ablam Estel, 2023. "Household welfare in the digital age: Assessing the effect of mobile money on household consumption volatility in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Ablam Estel Apeti, 2022. "Household welfare in the digital age: Assessing the effect of mobile money on household consumption volatility in developing countries," Post-Print hal-03819779, HAL.
    3. Ablam Estel Apeti & Jean-Louis Combes & Eyah Denise Edoh, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in developing countries: can mobile money play a role?," Working Papers hal-04081304, HAL.
    4. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Arouna Kouandou & Sophie Legras, 2025. "Welfare Impacts of Mobile Banking Use in Rural Africa: Gender Disaggregated Evidence from Eight Sub-Saharan African Countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(4), pages 812-838, August.
    6. Cátia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2025. "Is Mobile Money Changing Rural Africa? Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(3), pages 835-844, May.
    7. Naito, Hisahiro & Yamamoto, Shinnosuke, 2022. "Is better access to mobile networks associated with increased mobile money adoption? Evidence from the micro-data of six developing countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6).
    8. Hisahiro Naito & Shinnosuke Yamamoto, 2022. "Is Better Access to Mobile Networks Associated with Increased Mobile Money Adoption? Evidence from the Micro-data of Six Developing Countries," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2022-001, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    9. Ansar,Saniya & Klapper,Leora & Singer,Dorothe, 2023. "The Importance of Financial Education for the Effective Use of Formal Financial Services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10345, The World Bank.
    10. Abate, Gashaw T. & Abay, Kibrom A. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Kassim, Yumna & Spielman, David J. & Paul Jr Tabe-Ojong, Martin, 2023. "Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    11. Lee, Jean N. & Morduch, Jonathan & Ravindran, Saravana & Shonchoy, Abu S., 2022. "Narrowing the gender gap in mobile banking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 276-293.
    12. Yao, Becatien & Shanoyan, Aleksan & Schwab, Ben & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2023. "The role of mobile money in household resilience: Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    13. Leora Klapper, 2024. "Expanding Financial Inclusion through Digital Financial Services : A Literature Review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11008, The World Bank.
    14. Hiroyuki Egami & Tomoya Matsumoto, 2020. "Mobile Money Use and Healthcare Utilization: Evidence from Rural Uganda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-34, May.
    15. N'dri, Lasme Mathieu & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2020. "Financial inclusion, mobile money, and individual welfare: The case of Burkina Faso," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    16. Aurazo, Jose & Gasmi, Farid, 2024. "Digital payment systems in emerging economies: Lessons from Kenya, India, Brazil, and Peru," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    17. Luc Jacolin & Joseph Keneck Massil & Alphonse Noah, 2021. "Informal sector and mobile financial services in emerging and developing countries: Does financial innovation matter?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2703-2737, September.
    18. Yiping Huang & Xue Wang & Xun Wang, 2020. "Mobile Payment in China: Practice and Its Effects," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 19(3), pages 1-18, Fall.
    19. Richard Chamboko, 2024. "Digital financial services adoption: a retrospective time-to-event analysis approach," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-27, December.
    20. Batista, Catia & Vicente, Pedro C., 2020. "Improving access to savings through mobile money: Experimental evidence from African smallholder farmers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea22:322294. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.