Drivers of Fintech Adoption in Zimbabwe's Mobile Money Landscape: Case of Old Mutual's OMARI

Abstract

This study explored the motivation behind the use of fintech in the mobile money ecosystem of Zimbabwe and specifically in the case of Old Mutual and O’mari. The research was mixed methods research design, and the data was collected on 500 respondents in Harare, including 405 mobile money users, and 95 management respondents composed of both staff respondents and agents. The technology acceptance model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) served as the foundation of the study to investigate how the factors influence the uptake of mobile money services by the users. The data analysis performed the descriptive analysis and inferential analysis of a statistic which was carried out by defining that the distribution of frequency of transactions and trust was normal. Results obtained showed that the adoption patterns were greatly stratified by socio-economic factors such as lower-income users considered mobile money an important part of the financial infrastructure whereas higher-income users considered it a convenient addition. The Intermediated Money Transfer Tax of 2% became an essential snag where 64.2% of customers interviewed cited transaction costs among the significant hindrances. The uncertainty caused by regulatory uncertainty, through informal rumour networks, had a significant impact on user behaviour, as 72.3% of customers and 84.2% of management reported active regulatory speculation on digital balance retention. Reliability of technology was more to determine trust than feature sophistication as 76.8% of management respondents insisted on the reliability of systems as opposed to innovation. Rural and marginalised populations were systematically locked out by accessibility barriers which were mainly agent distance (44.2% of respondents related to rural areas indicated this) and float scarcity. Another important emergent observation was the discovery of emotional trust, based on the Zimbabwean history of monetary instability, as a yearning determinant among traditional technology acceptance construct variables. The study finds that the sustainable introduction of fintech must be accompanied by favorable interventions which target structural accessibility, regulatory predictability, and trust deficit (historically informed) through the creation of reliability-driven platforms and through the application of inclusive policy frameworks.