An Exploratory Study
FEATURED PAPER
By Tariro Mavaza
Department of Banking and Finance
Great Zimbabwe University
Masvingo, Zimbabwe
ABSTRACT
Increased use of mobile services and use of internet as a new distribution channel for banking transactions and international trading has created necessary conditions for E- banking. The growth of E-banking in Zimbabwe has been encouraged by improved internet connectivity and the introduction of mobile money products by Mobile Network Operators thanks to the introduction of the multicurrency regime by the Government of National Unity in 2009. This study was carried out to assess the extent of E- banking adoption among the Zimbabwean banks and identify possible hindrances to the same. Key drivers to adoption of E-banking were also part of the focus of the study as well as its inhibitors. An exploratory research design was used to achieve the envisaged aims of the study. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire. The participants in the study were bank managers and bank customers. Overall the results of the study showed that while E-banking has made inroads in Zimbabwe its adoption has been at a very slow pace. The main reason for this was lack of public trust in the banking system as a result of 2003 to 2010 economic meltdown experiences of bank customers. The implications of the study are that banks should vigorously promote adoption of E-banking among its customers and that the Government should move with speed to restore public confidence in banking sector restoring macroeconomic fundamentals and coming up with consistent policies.
Keywords: E-banking, online banking, perceived usefulness, Zimbabwe
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The proliferation of, and advances in, technology world over specifically those related to internet has led to fundamental changes in how financial institutions serve their customers. Use of the electronic banking (e-banking) has become the self-service delivery channel that allows banks to provide banking services to their customers with more convenience. Today, many financial institutions, worldwide, are rushing to become more customer focused with less customer contact through use of internet banking and ‘plastic money’.
In its very basic form, e-banking can mean the provision of information about a bank and its services via a home page on the World Wide Web (WWW). Zwass (2003) echoes a more coherent definition of electronic banking stating that it is the deployment of banking services and products over electronic and communication networks directly to customers. These electronic and communication networks include ATMs, direct dial-up connections, private and public networks, the internet, televisions, mobile devices and telephones The banking industry has been undergoing changes since the mid 1990s, in the form of innovative use of information technology and development in electronic commerce (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996). This development made e–banking pose as a threat to the traditional branch operations. For customers, the internet offers faster access, is more convenient and available around the clock irrespective of the customer’s location. From the banks’ point of view, use of the internet has significantly reduced the physical costs of banking operations.
In Zimbabwe the first visible form of electronic innovation was in the early 1990s when Standard Chartered Bank and Central Africa Building Society (CABS) installed Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Other forms of electronic innovations that have found their way into Zimbabwean banks are Electronic Funds Transfer Systems (EFT), Telephone banking, Personal Computer (PC) banking and recently internet banking (Dube, et al ,2009). In Zimbabwe, over the past twelve years the banking sector has undergone great metamorphosis because of policy related issues, corporate governance failures of the early 2000s, and the meltdown of the economy which climaxed in 2008 with rampant speculative behaviour in the financial sector of the economy and industry specific factors (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, 2011). These events affected the adoption of e-banking services by Zimbabwean banks adversely, until 2009 when things started to pick up thanks to the adoption of the multicurrency regime by the government (Biti, 2010). Since 2009, when the economy rejuvenated, the Zimbabwean government, in conjunction with the financial sector, as the case in many other countries, is exploring ways to encourage the vigorous use of e-banking (Gono, 2012).
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How to cite this paper: Mavaza, T. (2019). E-Banking Adoption by Zimbabwe Banks: An Exploratory Study; PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue XI, December. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pmwj88-Dec2019-Mavaza-ebanking-adoption-by-Zimbabwe-banks.pdf
About the Author
Tariro Mavaza
Masvingo, Zimbabwe
Tariro Mavaza is a Lecturer in the Munhumutapa School of Commerce, Department of Banking and Finance, at the Great Zimbabwe University. He previously worked for Zimbabwe Revenue Authority as a Revenue Official. His areas of research are: Financial markets, Revenue Collection Systems I, Corporate Governance, Quality Management Systems and Project Management. He has published three research papers in International and Regional Journals on Total Quality Management and Corporate governance. He can be contacted at tmavaza@gzu.ac.zw
