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Fraud is a global economic menace which threatens the survival of individuals, firms, industries and economies, and the mobile money service is no exception. This paper aims to explore the main causes of fraud in the mobile money services in Ghana and the measures to combat the menace by the key stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. The paper is motivated by recent reports of numerous fraudulent transactions on the mobile money platform, and the need to clamp down these nefarious transactions with effective and practical measures to sustain the service.

A thorough review of existing studies on fraud risk relating to mobile money services was done revealing a paucity of literature on the subject. Primary data were gathered using an interview guide to explore the magnitude of the problem based on the views of employees of mobile money operators, mobile money agents, banking supervisors from Bank of Ghana, employees of partnering banks, employees of National Communications Authority and mobile money subscribers.

The study revealed that fraud in mobile money services is caused by weak internal controls and systems, lack of sophisticated information technology tools to detect the menace, inadequate education and training and the poor remuneration of employees. These factors disrupt the growth, and the smooth-running of the services. To curb this menace, a detailed legal code and internal fraud policy should be developed and used by mobile money operators and partner banks. Adequate training for mobile money agents should be encouraged coupled with public awareness campaigns to educate stakeholders especially the mobile money subscribers on the tricks of the fraudsters.

With the chosen research methodology and limited sample size, the findings may not reflect the views of all the stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. Therefore, future studies on this subject are entreated to use research methods which embrace larger samples to get more details about this menace.

The study will assist in tackling the mobile money fraud to sustain the service in the foreseeable future.

This paper contributes to scanty literature on fraud relating to the mobile money services by drawing lessons from a middle-income country.

The rapid growth of the mobile money industry has been matched by a rise in mobile money fraud. The technology required to apprehend perpetrators of such fraud is nonexistent in most developing countries. Hence, the need for individuals to be willing to pay for insurance against such frauds is crucial. This paper aims to examine individuals’ willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud in Ghana.

The paper uses nationally representative data collected from 4,266 adults (persons 18 years and above) in Ghana. Individuals’ willingness to pay premiums for protection against mobile money fraud was elicited by a single-bound dichotomous choice and open-ended contingent valuation designs.

On average, 24.34% of Ghanaians are willing to pay premiums for insurance against mobile money frauds, with more men (26.37%) being willing than women (22.56%). Similarly, the average monthly premium that men are willing to pay for protection against mobile money fraud is GH¢32.16 (US$8.16), while that of women is GH¢22.5 (US$5.62). Furthermore, the results show that years of schooling, income, previous fraud experience, and using the accounts for saving are all positively associated with willingness to pay. However, using other networks apart from MTN has a negative association with willingness to pay.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud. Thus, this is the first that estimate quantitatively how much mobile account holders will pay as premiums for insurance against mobile money fraud.

Drawing from the argument that mobile money services have a significant potential to provide a wide range of affordable, convenient and secure financial services, there have been rampant frauds on consumers of financial products over the digital financial platform. Thus, this study aims to establish the mediating effect of digital consumer protection in the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion with data collected from micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in northern Uganda.

To achieve the main objective of this study, a research model was developed to test for the mediating effect of digital consumer protection in the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion. The data were collected from MSMEs and structural equation modelling in partial least square (PLS) combined with bootstrap was applied to analyze and test the hypotheses of this study. The direct and indirect effect of mobile money adoption and usage on financial inclusion was tested through digital consumer protection as a mediator variable.

The findings from the PLS-structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that mobile money adoption and usage has both direct and indirect effect on financial inclusion. Moreover, financial inclusion is influenced by both mobile money adoption and usage and digital consumer protection.

The study used partial least square (PLS-SEM) combined with bootstrap confidence intervals through a formative approach to establish the mediating effect of the mediator variable. Hence, it ignored the use of covariance-based SEM and the MedGraph programme. Furthermore, data were collected from samples located in Gulu district, northern Uganda and specifically from MSMEs. This limits generalization of the study findings to other population who also use mobile money services.

Promoters of digital financial services, managers of telecommunication companies, and financial inclusion advocates should consider strengthening the existing digital consumer protection laws on the mobile money platform. A collaborative approach between the mobile network operators, financial institutions and regulators should tighten the existing laws against mobile money fraudsters and an efficient mechanism for recourse, compensation and remedy should be set up to benefit the victims of frauds and cybercrime on the Fintech ecosystem.

The current study gives a useful insight into the critical mediating role of digital consumer protection as a cushion for promoting financial inclusion through mobile phones over the Fintech that face great threat and risk from cyber insecurity.

Recently, a large body of research has been devoted on the role of trust in shaping different types of transactions, especially in rural financial development. Trust is a set of expectations shared by all those who engage in an exchange. Indeed, the “rule of the game” suggests that no trusting party in a transaction should act opportunistically. Consequently, this study aims to establish the mediating effect of trust in the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion of MSMEs in developing countries with a specific focus on rural Uganda.

A quantitative survey-based study was used and responses obtained from 379 MSMEs located in northern Uganda were analysed using partial least square-PLS version 3.0. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed from scales and items used in previous studies referenced in internationally recognised journals to elicit responses from the MSMEs. Structural equation modelling was used to test the models to arrive at a final empirical model derived from the data.

The authors found evidence that trust enhances mobile money adoption and usage to increase the scope of financial inclusion of MSMEs in developing countries. Moreover, when individual effect was determined, trust also had significant and positive effect on financial inclusion. Thus, the study results imply that trust enhances mobile money adoption and usage to improve the level of financial inclusion of MSMEs in developing countries.

The study used cross-sectional data to document the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion and to establish the mediating effect of trust in the relationship. Future research could use relevant longitudinal data to verify other benefits of trust.

The results present trust as a significant factor for FINTECH financial services marketing and growth. Specifically, data privacy and effectiveness of the mobile telephone network is more likely to help consumers to bridge the gap between participation and non-participation on the mobile money platform. Customers’ data sent over the mobile network of providers should be protected from unnecessary access and usage by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) staff and unauthorised persons and agents. Data protection protocols should be set by the MNOs to avoid unnecessary access and use of customers’ data.

Globally, Fintech scholars have examined the role of mobile money in promoting financial inclusion. However, there is insufficient evidence on the mediating effect of trust in the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion, especially among rural MSMEs. This study invents a novel direction on the importance of trust in creating transaction efficiency by eliminating opportunism and fraud with in the Fintech ecosystem.

This paper seeks to examine the motivating factors that propel people to use mobile money in the Greater Accra Region (GAR) of Ghana. The authors posit that the behaviour of a person, in terms of the choice and means of transaction, cannot be explained solely by utility-maximizing assumptions or rationality. Thus, other socio-cultural and psychological factors are crucial in determining whether a person will use mobile money.

This study uses a cross-sectional design to obtain primary data on 733 households from the GAR of Ghana to determine the drivers of mobile money use. Given the binary nature of the dependent variable, a logit model and its marginal effects are estimated. Furthermore, parametric and non-parametric statistical tests are used to examine gender effect and mobile money use.

The study finds that technology savvy cohorts (youthful age cohorts), available services such as phone credit recharge, education and income are among the key determinants of mobile money use in Ghana. Furthermore, parametric and non-parametric tests of mobile money use on gender show a statistically significant difference in gender use of mobile money, albeit, marginal. The findings imply that consistent use of mobile money to access social and economic services can go a long way in promoting financial inclusion, financial empowerment and general wellbeing of people.

Households in developing countries especially Ghana have rapidly embraced mobile money technology. However, what determines the household level of adoption, to the best of our knowledge, is unknown and yet to be tested. This study bridges that gap in the empirical literature as well as contributes to policy decisions.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2020-0271

Currently, mobile payments have become pervasive in electronic commerce and are steadily increasing in many regions worldwide. In the literature, however, its continued usage among consumers is deemed equivocal, particularly among small businesses. This study uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to examine mobile money continuance intention among micro enterprises in an emerging/less-developed economy. This study aims to explore the mediating role of agent credibility on this relationship, given that these agents are contingent actors between service providers and mobile money users.

After a preliminary qualitative enquiry, quantitative data collected from 584 micro enterprises were tested from the UTAUT perspective, using structural equation modelling.

Findings from the study establish the applicability of the UTAUT in explaining the antecedents, motivations and continuance intention of mobile money usage among micro enterprises. Further, beyond their direct effects, the UTAUT conditions have indirect effects on the continuance intention through their effect on perceived agent credibility.

The findings provide evidence to issues of research and managerial interest, offering insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities, respectively.

Using the theory, construct, method, moderator (TCMM) format, this framework-based review critically analyses the mobile financial services (MFSs) field through a detailed synthesis and analysis of a sample of mainstream empirical research published in various scientific journals within the period 2009–2020.

The authors followed a three-step structured approach suggested by Webster and Watson (2002) to search for the literature to synthesise the global perspectives on MFSs and their associated applications and systems. The literature research resulted in the identification of 115 most relevant articles.

The authors identified three major categories or domains within the MFSs comprising the entire spectrum of digital financial services. To facilitate the literature analysis, TCMM is developed and proposed as an organising framework. Moreover, the authors also developed and presented the comprehensive framework of MFS domains and explicitly identified 14 different research themes for future research in MFSs.

Prior attempts to synthesise and analyse mainstream academic research in MFSs have been scant and limited to a specific MFS domain: mobile banking or mobile payment. The authors synthesised a more extensive body of knowledge and provided a global perspective on the MFS field. Unlike the past literature reviews which followed traditional frameworks such as antecedents, decisions and outcome (ADO); TCCM; and 6 W Framework (who, when, where, how, what and why), the authors developed and proposed TCMM as organising framework.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of consumer engagement and its consequences via the experiences of mobile money services’ users in Ghana and to discuss its implications for the society, financial service innovation, delivery and operations.

A pre-tested survey instrument was used with a sample of 595 mobile money services users in Ghana. SmartPLS application was used to analyze the data and report findings.

The study shows that perceived risk, consumer empowerment, subjective norm, performance expectancy and effort expectancy influence the affect component of consumer engagement and explain around half of its variance. The effect of perceived risk on consumer engagement was counterintuitive. Perceived risk was significant and positive for cognitive processing, whereas the effect was significant but negative for affect. The authors found support for the positive effect of cognitive processing on advocacy intention but no support for its effect on continuous usage. By contrast, affect strongly influenced both advocacy intention and continuous usage of mobile money services.

The authors highlight the implications of mobile money services to business and marketing/service managers, policy makers, non-banking entities (such as telecoms and financial technology firms) and to the society in general. The authors provide important insights into how service providers can manage consumer engagement process and formulate marketing strategies to target and promote this simple, but innovative service to consumers. Moreover, the authors discuss the societal implications of the study in Ghana, a developing country. The authors recommend several options for future studies in order to stimulate the research agenda on mobile financial services in general.

The present study shows that although mobile money was initially introduced to help consumers who hitherto have no access to formal banking services, this form of banking has become increasingly popular among various consumer segments as its usage and adoption has increased multifold largely in emerging and developing countries. The main contribution of this study is the development and testing of the “mobile money customer engagement model.” Moreover, this study shows the key factors that influence the engagement process and the effects of these factors as analyzed within the context of a developing country.

This study aims to explore the nature and impacts of cybercrime in the Zimbabwean retail sector and evaluate the effectiveness of the current measures to deal with cybercrime.

This study adopted a mixed research design on a sample of 38 retail players in a small mining town, Bindura, who were selected using stratified random and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected through a mainly closed-ended questionnaire and in-depth interview guide. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse quantitative data, whereas summative content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data.

Virus dissemination, hacking and card fraud were identified as the major forms of cybercrime prevalent in the retail sector. Additional security costs, loss of sensitive data and direct financial losses were found to be the major impacts posed by cybercrime on retail sector. It was also established that the current internal measures and policing efforts to fight cybercrime in the retail sector were ineffective.

This study provides context-specific information on the scourge of cybercrime in a developing third world country that has of late been characterised by a myriad of other socioeconomic challenges. Although similar studies have been conducted in other parts of the globe, there has been a dearth of literature on retail sector cybercrime in Zimbabwe. This study also interrogates the Zimbabwean retail sector’s preparedness in dealing with this contemporary threat.

The inception of mobile financial services (MFSs) has positively provoked economic growth and productivity, nonetheless, it has pessimistically caused an upward surge in cybersecurity threat. Customers are progressively becoming conscious of some of the threat and several of them now shun away from some suspicious activities over the internet as a form of protection. This study aims to explore the factors that influence users’ to adopt security behaviour.

A synthesis of theories – Self-efficacy and technology threat avoidance theories – was used to examine the security behaviour of users of MFSs. Data was gathered from 530 students in Ghana using convenience sampling technique. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and structural equation model.

Outcome of the investigation indicate that both mastery experience and verbal persuasion have substantial effect on the avoidance motivation of MFSs users. It was, however, found that emotional state and vicarious experience of users do not influence their avoidance motivation. Also, it was established that avoidance motivation is a positive prognosticator of avoidance behaviour.

Understanding the security behaviour of MFS users will help the operators to outline strategies to sustain the successes achieved.

Studies on user security behaviour are rare, especially in sub Saharan Africa, thus, this study will contribute to extant literature by adding a new dimension of user security behaviour.