Browsing by Author "Van Wyk, Desery"

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    An evaluation of mobile banking as a tool for enhancing financial inclusion in Namibia: A case of FNB Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2020) Van Wyk, Desery; Woyo, Elisha
    Financial inclusion is a multi-dimensional concept of financial development that enables affordable access through availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services, especially among previously disadvantaged social groups. Namibia has one of the most developed financial systems in Africa, and is blessed with a well run payment system. Yet, Namibia has failed to fully leverage its mobile penetration rate of 97% to deploy financial solutions that can provide an interoperable platform for financial inclusion. As such, this study uses data from a population of the more than 1,2 million mobile banking customers on the FNB Cell phone banking and E wallet platforms in the period July 2012 to December 2019 (89 months). However, the sample size was restricted by privacy concerns, which saw the study using 74% (66/89 months) of data in the period July 2012 to December 2017 (66 months). The study used a cross-sectional time-series econometric analysis to test Granger causality relationships between mobile banking and financial inclusion. The study found that at the 95% level of confidence, there were significant mean differences (MD) between the unbanked and banked platforms, in terms of value-added services, cash out ratios and financial inclusion channels on the mobile banking platforms. The study also found that among the four identified financial inclusion channels, only Profit Incentives and Financial Penetration channels could be enhanced with mobile banking. While, the other two channels: Financial Access and Account Ownership, influenced the rate of mobile phone adoption. The study concludes that the charge-based value added services provide the critical intermediation link as to how profit incentives can enhance both mobile banking services and financial inclusion in Namibia. The study recommends that regulators should provide profitability incentives to the banks and other e-money service-providers, as profitable mobile banking platforms can be used as effective tools for enhancing financial inclusion of the unbanked population