An assessment of factors influencing the growth in market share of mobile money business in the Zimbabwean mobile network providers

Abstract

Mobile money business is a new phenomenon, which has transformed the lives of the previously financially excluded poor people especially in developing nations. The industry is continuing to grow rapidly, with increased business success stories being recorded. The purpose of this study was to make an assessment of the factors influencing the growth in market share of mobile money in the Zimbabwean mobile phone providers. The motivation of this study is to give insights to current players and new players entering such an industry, so that they are able to be in a position to make informed strategic decisions. The study adopted a quantitative deductive research approach and survey design, in which the Harare CBD agents from the three mobile network providers constituted the population of the study. A combination of stratified and simple random sampling methods was used to select the agents. Stratified random sampling was selected to allow agents from all the operators to have the opportunity of being sampled. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). The results revealed that all the factors influence the growth in market share of mobile money, among the factors analysed such as the strong financial resource, customer base, strong agent network, network coverage and pricing strategy, the factor with the greatest influence was the financial resource factor, and the least was network coverage. It is recommended that the Central bank, RBZ and POTRAZ should put a regulatory framework in place for the mobile payment system to curb against monopoly and anti-competitive agreements in this industry. The study also recommended that mobile operators who are in this industry or who may wish to venture into this industry be financially sound as the business needs a lot of investment in terms of customer acquisition, agent training and management, network coverage, without which there is no growth in market share in the mobile money business.