Abstract:
M-banking, have been available in developing as well as developed countries for several
years, but it is not until recently that new modalities of applying M-banking have started
to diffuse rapidly to previously unbanked people. The objectives of the study were to
determine the effect of M-Pesa bill payment transaction costs, accessibility, security and
convenience of the bill payment system on efficiency of Safaricon customers in paying
bills. The study covered Safaricom subscribers in Kisii County, Kenya, due to the fact
that the county has a high population and adopted a quantitative research design. Data
was collected by use of a well structured and pre-tested questionnaire from a sample of
235 respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected from the
field. Multiple Regression Analysis to show the cause effect relationship among
variables. This study established that M-pesa bill payment transaction cost has an effect
on customer’s efficiency in payment of bills, accessibility of payment points was likely to
result to an increase in customers’ efficiency, while security and convenience of the
system has an effect on efficiency of bill payment. The study recommends that
transaction costs should regularly be revised with a view to maintaining them at
affordable levels so that customers can continue enjoying the M-pesa payment system
which is affordable for them, financial incentives be used by the service provider so as to
encourage more vendors to provide the service and hence continue making the service
accessible to as many customers as is possible. Further, security of the service should be
paramount so as to lock out con men that tend to target illiterate and old customers and
several service providers should adopt the Mpesa bill payment system so that customers
can have the convenience of paying all their bills using this system.
