Abstract

Developing countries in Africa tend to face many challenges when it comes to ICT adoption and use. This is partly due to their low income which makes it difficult to spend on ICTs and related innovations. However, with the proliferation of mobile technology and the newly increase of the middle class citizens who tend to be younger, better educated, and a keen adopter of new technologies; organizations are forced to find ways of understanding these customers better and find how best they can provide goods and services to this emerging class. South Africa, one of the sub-Saharan countries with the most advanced telecommunication network infrastructures of the emerging markets, has experienced an increase in middle class citizens and comparatively better smartphone penetration. With this in mind, one would imagine that South Africa would have been one of the leaders in mobile payments. However, adoption has been lower than most other sub-Saharan African countries. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the factors that affect mobile payments in the South African context from perspective of the middle class individuals. Following a quantitative approach and collecting data via an online questionnaire, the findings show that trust, risk and habitual use were factors that significantly affected intention to adopt mobile payments by South African middle class citizens. The findings provide the financial services industry and providers of mobile commerce offering with a better understanding of what are the main customer concerns in South Africa from the middle income clientele perspective.

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