The Impact of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to the Economic Development of Emerging Economy

Fahmida Ayesa Eva, Shamim Ahmed

University of Dhaka, BRAC University

The study aims to explore the research questions and tries to find out how many Mobile financial services have contributed to our rural economic development in Bangladesh. The research type is exploratory and followed by a conclusive method. A total of 100 MFS users were taken for the study. The study's findings revealed that MFSs contribute to individual households, small and medium businesses, and farmers but that is not at a very significant level. Rural people are using MFSs only for money transfer services and remittance purposes. Other services like savings, insurance, access to loans, and mobile banking have not been used that much, and many rural people don’t even know about these services due to a lack of knowledge and education. The study also showed that MFSs have increased income, improved living standards, Job creation, poverty alleviation, women empowerment, breakdown of the power of middlemen, and so on. However rural populations have faced some problems and challenges with MFSs. Based on these findings, the study suggested that MFS operators should build a strong security system to moderate the transaction cost and arrange more campaigns regarding Digital and Financial literacy programs in rural areas. So, the risk associated with MFSs should be reduced and then MFS may prove as one of the finest innovations in our developing country.

Article link: https://www.asianinstituteofresearch.org/JEBarchives/the-impact-of-mobile-financial-services-(mfs)-to-the-economic-development-of-emerging-economy