Determinants of Use and Intensity of Use of Mobile Phone-based Money Transfer Services in Smallholder Agriculture: Case of Kenya

Oliver Kirui, Julius Juma Okello and Rose Adhiambo Nyikal

No 125739, 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Smallholder farmer access to agricultural finance has been a major constraint to agricultural commercialization in developing countries. The ICT revolution in Africa has however brought an opportunity to ease this constraint. The mobile phone-based money transfer (MMT) services that started in Kenya urban centres have spread to rural areas and even other countries. Using these services farmers could receive funds to invest in agricultural financial transactions. This study examines the factors that influence use of MMT services among farm households in Kenya. It also assesses the factors conditioning the intensity of use of such services. The study finds education, distance to a commercial bank, membership to farmer organizations, distance to the m-banking agents and endowment with physical and financial assets affect the use of m-banking services. It discusses the implications of these findings for policy and practice.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Marketing; Production Economics; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Research Methods/Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-mfd
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae12:125739

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.125739

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