Mobile money services and the performance of microenterprises in Moshi District, Tanzania

Abstract

This study determined the contribution of mobile money services to the performance of microenterprises in Moshi district, Tanzania. Multistage sampling was used to obtain 120 shop retailers for survey and six key informants for in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were analysed through SPSS whereas qualitive data were analysed through content analysis. Findings show that mobile money services contributed positively to the performance of microenterprises through time saving (88.3%); improving security of money (87.5%); enhancing customers’ satisfaction (88.3%); increasing revenue (78.3%), profit (78.4%), sales volume (74.2%) and the number of customers (75.8%) as well as reducing transaction costs (49.2%). The performance of microenterprises was affected by the number of years on using mobile money services and the education level of microentrepreneurs. Several challenges were encountered in the course of using mobile money. Recommendations are made to improve the use of mobile money services in microenterprises.

Keywords: mobile money, mobile phones, microenterprises, Moshi, Tanzania