Effects of Financial Literacy Delivery Channels and Central Bank Regulations on Financial Inclusion of Commercial Banks in Kenya
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Date
2022-09Author
Boldar, Joseph D.S.
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Kenya features a high financial services availability and accessibility. However, the
usage of those services is low and remains a challenge for the full-service banks who
are the suppliers and the main players for inclusion within the financial markets.
Against this backdrop, the study evaluated financial literacy delivery channels
and CBK regulations on financial inclusion of banks involved in commercial activities
in Kenya. The predictor variables were financial education partnership, digital
financial platforms, consumer awareness, and financial advisory services while the
response variable was financial inclusion. The moderating variable was central bank
regulations. The study was guided by resource-based theory, diffusion of innovation
theory, motivation-needs theory, Prospect theory, and institutional theory to
hypothesize the connection between the selected variables. The research adopted a
descriptive survey design and the 10,717-management staff of the 40 banks engaged
in commercial activities in Kenya was the study population. The sample size was 384
respondents obtained using the Cochran model. The study adopted stratified
probability sampling to get a sample of 384 respondents comprising 199 from large
banks, 120 from medium-size banks, and 65 from small banks. The study collected
and analyzed primary data using semi-structured questionnaires. For data analysis,
descriptive statistics were utilized to compute means, frequencies, and standard
deviation while inferential statistics involved regression and correlation was applied to
work out the connection between the study variables using advanced SPSS computer
software version 23. The results of the multivariate analysis showed that financial
education partnership, digital financial platforms, consumer awareness, and financial
advisory services as delivery channels of financial literacy had a positive effect on
financial inclusion. The findings further showed that CBK regulations significantly
moderated the relationship between digital platforms, financial advisory services, and
financial inclusion. The moderating effect of CBK regulations on the
connection between financial education partnership, consumer awareness, and
financial inclusion was found to be insignificant. The study concluded that financial
literacy activities significantly influence financial inclusion of commercial banks,
but due to low financial education partnership among the banks to sponsor
financial education schemes and low financial advisory services the usage of
monetary products and services by financial consumers remains low and this has
reduced the general performance of financial inclusion. Additionally, the influence of
the existence CBK regulations on the adoption of the financial literacy delivery
channels was low which also affected the low usage of financial services. Based on
these findings the study recommends that Central Bank of Kenya, the Kenya Bankers
Association, and the full-service banks management work collaboratively to formulate
policies that will help the banks improve their financial literacy delivery channels for
the users of monetary services, which might, in turn, enhance financial inclusion
already constrained by low usage of monetary products, and services. The study
recommends that further studies should concentrate on other financial literacy delivery
channels not factored in this study to bridge the conceptual gaps.
Publisher
KeMU