Financial Inclusion through Mobile Banking: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Use of mobile phone for inclusive finance is very crucial for countries where most of the population is unbanked or underbanked. The study attempted to identify the major challenges and opportunities for mobile banking development in Ethiopia. An exploratory research design is utilized as the area of the study is fresh and requires a better understanding of the situation. The study reveals that hitherto there are no operational challenges that hinder the flourish of m-banking development in Ethiopia. However, lack of timely approval of new products by regulatory body, lack of interoperability system and lack of aggregators between service provider and retail agents were the major problems observed in the study. High PCI and mobile phone penetration rate were found out to be the most important potential for the development of mobile banking in Ethiopia.

Keywords  Mobile-banking, Financial Inclusion, Challenges