Establishing Mobile Financial Services in Ethiopia

Mobile phone service is increasing among low income populations, however, with over one billion mobile service users worldwide, many people still lack banking services. Banks do not reach out to poor people because of the high operational costs involved. Scholars and industry practitioners have indicated that Mobile phones could be an alternative channel for delivering financial services to less advantaged and unbanked people, without requiring a traditional bank with a branch network. However, there are strategies for minimizing product failures while implementing the mobile banking service. The purpose of this qualitative single study was to explore the strategies bank managers used to implement the new mobile banking service to the Ethiopian community. New product development theory served as the conceptual framework for this study. Twenty participants were interviewed from the leading private bank in Ethiopia. Data from semi structured interviews, in addition to mobile banking policy documents, were analysed for methodological triangulation.