Socio-Economic Factors of Mobile Money in Pakistan

Abstract

World technologies have changed the perspective of a consumer; at one time, people need more time to travel than communicate with long-distance living relatives. The telecommunication industry has gained significantly since the invention of the transistor. In the last century, the most valuable development in telecommunication services was the development of the mobile phone. The emergence of information communication and the mobile phone industry has changed the money transmission mechanism. Mobile money is one of the new mechanisms in financial services is that accessible through mobile phones, and it allows people to make their financial transactions via mobile phones. This type of mobile money service enhanced the social life of people and it also generates economic benefits for them. This study aims to investigate the socio-economic determinants of mobile money services in Pakistan and how this service competes with traditional financial systems. To examine the determinants of this research, a study based on Karachi, as a sample of this research. Karachi is the largest metropolitan city in Pakistan and it has the highest internal migration rate in Pakistan. Primary and secondary data were used to analyze the determinants of mobile money in Pakistan. The study reveals that migrated people are less prefer to use mobile money services due to multiple reasons. In addition, the young population has a more frequent use of mobile money. The study concludes that way, mobile money services have enormous potential in Pakistan and it makes a tough call to its competitors by accessibility and affordability. Pakistan's government should introduce more players in the market to create a healthy competition and reduce the unbanked population.