Mobile Money and Investment by Women Businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Effects of Mobile Money Services on the Performance of Small and Medium Size Enterprises

“…Even if recent studies indicate that mobile phone use and coverage have a favorable impact on risk reduction, market improvements, business coordination, and the labor market. This has been facilitated by the ability of technology to influence numerous company activities in a positive manner (Islam & Muzi, 2020). For micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, the rising use of mobile devices in developing nations and the potential of the mobile platform to address business difficulties are very exciting.…”

“…In summary, the topic of the effects of mobile money services on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises is lacking, particularly in Ghana. There are only a few related studies around the world particularly on Africa such as (Islam & Muzi, 2020;Tengeh & Gahapa Talom, 2020;Ngaruiya, 2014;Higgins et al, 2012;Talom & Tengeh, 2019) have been carried out and still there severely need to conduct such study, particularly to find whether electronic banking improves financial services accessibility in Ghana and allows banks to cut costs while providing banking services more quickly, effectively, and with fewer employees. Therefore, this study fills the above gap by describing and exploring the effects of mobile money services on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises.…”

The adoption of digital payments in emerging economies: challenges and policy responses

“…Unfortunately, this practice resulted in fraudulent or inappropriate agent behavior (El-Huni, 2014; The World Food Program [WFP], 2016). Network or infrastructure failures are common, leading to difficulties for users in accessing their funds and therefore maintain confident in the digital payments system (Islam and Woodard, 2014; InterMedia Africa, 2015; Adewole, 2015). In addition to network connectivity problems, users often face unreliable and inconsistent service schedules by DSPs.…”

The economic outcomes of financial innovation and digital infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…The study also finds that small and medium-sized enterprises tend to benefit more from mobile money adoption. In a recent study, Islam and Muzi (2020) find that the effect of mobile money on firm-level investment is driven by female-owned businesses compared to male-owned firms.…”

“…existing traditional financial services in relation to firm performance such as labour productivity. Empirical evidence in this regard is limited as most studies focused on the firm-level implications of either traditional financial services or mobile money Islam & Muzi, 2020;Islam, Muzi, & Meza, 2018) without testing for possible complementarities. There is evidence showing that mobile money and traditional financial services coexist (Gosavi, 2015) 3 , but we do not know how the interplay between these two financial services affects firm productivity.…”