Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

Almost all the micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in Kenya have introduced mobile money to increase the convenience and speed of transactions, and to lower the cost of transferring funds. Since most MFIs had already established their brick-and-mortar operations, mobile money only complements their traditional approaches to serving their clients. Musoni, a relatively new MFI, provides micro-finance purely through mobile technology. This cashless model eliminates some administrative costs and makes transactions efficient for both the customers and the MFI. The uptake has been impressive and the model is believed to help reduce client groups’ meeting frequency, leaving customers more time for business and increasing customer loyalty. The researchers proposed to establish preliminary evidence of the impact of pure mobile money on the consumers of Musoni services. The qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews while quantitative data was collected via structured questionnaires. From the study, it was observed that mobile money, when bundled with other products, became more valuable to customers and made the other products more appreciated. There was also an element of increased savings as a result of using mobile money. In addition, there was an apparent shift to mobile money for other transactions.