Adoption of mobile payments in Ghana: A merchant perspective

Abstract

Despite the potential benefits of merchant adoption of mobile payment, merchants still hesitate to employ it in their transactions, making the penetration of merchant adoption of mobile payment relatively low compared to other recent modes of cashless, noncontact payment. Therefore, this study seeks to theoretically discover the drivers and barriers of mobile payment adoption by merchants and to provide a theoretical explanation of how the adoption of mobile payment enhances the payment experience of merchants. The study adopted an exploratory approach by strategically using the case study of two merchants in the retail sector in Ghana. The findings demonstrate that, in Ghana, the business model and nature of the business, contextual factors and technology type as well as competition and cost serve as drivers of merchant adoption of mobile payment. On the other hand, factors such as risk, legal challenges, lack of trust in the expertise of the telecom industry in financial service delivery and lack of skills on the part of some merchants to comprehend mobile payment application were classified as barriers to mobile payment adoption in Ghana.