Factors Affecting Adoption of Mobile Money Payment Services By Students at Institutions of Higher Learning: Case Study of Kenya Institute of Special Education

Abstract

Mobile Money services have revolutionized the way purchases of products and services are done owing to its security, reliability, and ease of use, affordability, convenience, speed, accessibility and availability. In Kenya, mobile money is enhanced by the presence of mobile money transfer services such as M-Pesa, Airtel Money among others. The purpose of this study was to determine factors affecting adoption of mobile money payment services by students at institutions of higher learning: A Case study of Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) by answering the following research questions; does the transaction value determine the adoption of mobile money payment services by Kenya Institute of Special Education students?, to what extent do perceived risk affect mobile money payment services adoption among Kenya Institute of Special Education students? And does mobile money transaction cost determine the adoption of mobile money payment services by KISE Students?

The study adopted the descriptive design approach. The population of this study was all Kenya Institute of Special Education active students. This study being a survey, respondents were sampled and collection of data was by closed ended structured questionnaires. Data collection procedures, actual data collection, data analysis, and data presentation methods that were adopted by this study have been presented.

The first research question was to determine whether transaction value has an effect on adoption of mobile money payment services by students in institutions of high learning. It was established that most of the students experienced fear and uneasiness when payment involved large sums of money. Consequently, they would prefer paying through the bank to using mobile payment options.

The second research question was to assess the extent to which perceived risk affect mobile money payment services adoption among students in institutions of high learning. The findings of the study indicated that users have perceived risk on the usage of mobile money payment services. The study showed that a significant proportion of learners in institutions of high learning were particularly concerned on financial and social risks involved in using mobile payment services. The third research question was to determine whether mobile money transaction cost affected the adoption of mobile money payment services. The study revealed that students in institutions of higher learning perceive mobile money services as having higher transaction costs compared to other fees payment options available. Therefore, most of the students would often prefer other fees payment options to avoid incurring transaction costs associated with mobile money.

In conclusion, this study revealed that adoption of mobile payment services among students in institutions of high learning is battled with perceived financial and social risks by potential users, fear in transacting large amount of money and fear to incur higher transaction charges. The researcher therefore infers that ways need to be found to make it possible to demystify perceived risks and above transaction related issues among current and potential users, even if it takes sharing transaction costs.

For improvement purpose, the researcher recommends that transactions costs be shared by both the Institution and the Students and mobile money payment service provider needs to revise or justify transaction costs of mobile money payment. To avoid any perceived risk by the users it is also recommended that mobile money payment services users be taken through what it entails to pay via mobile money to avoid unnecessary suspicions and the service provider to provide proper wireless connectivity and enhance network infrastructure to avoid transaction delays. The researcher further recommends a need for the service providers of money payments platforms to motivate the users to embrace higher volume transactions by reward systems or even lowering and harmonising the costs.

The researcher recommends that further study be done to examine trends and perception among other sectors on the inefficiencies of mobile money services in their entrepreneurial endeavours. In the modern business landscape, there is a general tendency towards digitizing payments from retail shops, online shops through to groceries. A research need to be done to establish if the factors affecting adoption of mobile money payment services in education also affects other sectors.