Evaluating user satisfaction with the e-payment gateway system in Tanzania

Abstract

Introduction The process of revenue collection in Tanzania faces several challenges. These challenges include: tax exemptions, administrative incapacity, corruption, and difficulties in estimating the number of registered taxpayers (McCluskey et al. 2017). Other challenges include: limited payment options, difficulties in performing reconciliation, and poor records keeping. In order to address these challenges, the Government of Tanzania through the Ministry of Finance and Planning developed the Government Electronic Payment Gateway (GePG) system to improve the whole cycle of revenue management. The system aimed to increase transparency in all stages of the revenue collection process within the Government and its institutions. On the user side, the system has centralised payment of government services whereby citizens use control number to pay for the services. The system is integrated with all commercial banks, aggregators, and mobile money operators enabling control numbers to be settled in a wide range of payment options. That is to say, citizens can use mobile phones, banks, or bank agents to pay for the services once they generate control numbers. Once payment transaction is completed, the system generates an electronic receipt which is sent to the payer via SMS. On the institution side, users from financial and account departments use the system to generate invoices and collect revenue based on the services they offer. The system has a dashboard that displays various information such as collection summary, collection targets, paid and pending bills, and list of service providers. In this case, the information about revenue collection can be seen and tracked in real-time. The system also enables the generation of revenue reports, performs Background: The Government of Tanzania through the Ministry of Finance and Planning implemented the Government Electronic Payment Gateway (GePG) system to improve the whole cycle of revenue management. As of June 2020, the system has been implemented in 660 institutions, 28 commercial banks, and 6 mobile money operators. Whilst the initial acceptance of this system is positive, relatively no study has evaluated its effectiveness in meeting the expected benefits. Elsewhere, similar systems showed initial acceptance at the beginning, followed by failures after some years of use. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of GePG system to find out how effectively public money is spent. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the success of GePG system using users' satisfaction as a success measure. Method: The study adapted the updated Delone and Mclean Information Systems success model whereby perceived usefulness and trust in system were added as new factors. The sequential explanatory design research design integrating quantitative and qualitative data within a single investigation was adopted. A total of 442 users from 271 institutions in 11 regions in Tanzania participated in the study. Results: Trust in system, information quality, and perceived usefulness had a significant positive impact on users' satisfaction with GePG system, whilst service quality had a significant negative impact. In contrast, system quality did not have an effect. Conclusion: The study shows that trust in system and perceived usefulness are important factors in the updated Delone and Mclean IS success model in evaluating user satisfaction with revenue collection systems. The findings from the open-ended questions and implications of the findings are discussed.