Effects of Safaricom M-Pesa system on efficiency of customer bill payment in Kisii County

Abstract

M-banking, have been available in developing as well as developed countries for several years, but it is not until recently that new modalities of applying M-banking have started to diffuse rapidly to previously unbanked people. The objectives of the study were to determine the effect of M-Pesa bill payment transaction costs, accessibility, security and convenience of the bill payment system on efficiency of Safaricon customers in paying bills. The study covered Safaricom subscribers in Kisii County, Kenya, due to the fact that the county has a high population and adopted a quantitative research design. Data was collected by use of a well structured and pre-tested questionnaire from a sample of 235 respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected from the field. Multiple Regression Analysis to show the cause effect relationship among variables. This study established that M-pesa bill payment transaction cost has an effect on customer’s efficiency in payment of bills, accessibility of payment points was likely to result to an increase in customers’ efficiency, while security and convenience of the system has an effect on efficiency of bill payment. The study recommends that transaction costs should regularly be revised with a view to maintaining them at affordable levels so that customers can continue enjoying the M-pesa payment system which is affordable for them, financial incentives be used by the service provider so as to encourage more vendors to provide the service and hence continue making the service accessible to as many customers as is possible. Further, security of the service should be paramount so as to lock out con men that tend to target illiterate and old customers and several service providers should adopt the Mpesa bill payment system so that customers can have the convenience of paying all their bills using this system