Electronic Payment Adoption in the Banking Sector of Low-Income Countries

Banks in low-income countries are launching e-banking services such as Internet banking, SMS banking, ATM banking, card banking, point of sales (PoS) and mobile banking. Among these planned services, ATM is the most matured service in many private and state owned banks in Ethiopia. ATM is a recent phenomenon in low-income countries (Olatokun & Igbinedion 2009; Alaba, 2011), and is still being introduced in financial sectors in low-income countries (Angeli, 2008; Alaba 2011) making investigation of factors of ICT technology adoption in low income countries timely. The authors test context specific applicability of UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) model. The authors' analysis of primary data suggests general applicability of the modified UTAUT model in explaining factors and antecedents of technology adoption but also identifies significant differences in the moderating factors of gender and age. Depending on whether they are above or below the age of 30, Ethiopian consumers of banking services exhibit highly differentiated levels of service credibility and technology risk acceptance towards ATM banking. This suggests that banking services sector in low income countries may like to clearly delineate and appropriately differentiate their awareness and reach-out strategies to their customers who belong to one or the other age group. Furthermore, women in this study are found to perceive themselves as more susceptible to fraud and other security risks in ATM banking, suggesting that special design considerations be incorporated in the way locations of ATMs are selected and in the way ATM technology features are accessed to ally such fears. The authors' work also shows research directions where other scholars may investigate an otherwise much diffused technology adoption in the low income countries of the world.