The Potentials and Challenges to Introduce Credit Card Payment System in Ethiopia
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Date
2008-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Payment systems form the backbone of every financial infrastructure and economy in a country. Nowadays the rapid innovation and technological advancements are requiring transition in payment systems all over the world. Though credit cards are heavily used in developed and some developing countries, Ethiopian banks have not introduced credit card payment system till now. The research is a survey on ‘what if’ credit cards are introduced in Ethiopia. Data was collected through two types of questionnaires (from bank employees and consumers) and analyzed with Spss soft ware. Results of this research have shown that the potential opportunities to introduce credit card in Ethiopia are the level of awareness of existing employees of Ethiopian banks and their skill, the economic (financial) capacity Ethiopian banks and merchants, the capacity of banks to keep electronic accounts of merchants and consumers. Potential challenges to introduce credit card in Ethiopia are low level of awareness of merchants and consumers, weak infrastructural issues (lack of immediate authorization, financial literacy initiations, well established credit bureau, and required infrastructure of merchants), lack of skill of both the merchants and the consumer, weak economic capacity of the consumers, unclear legal system and non existence of consulting firms that can help consumers in managing their credit card expenses. It also found credit cards to have potential benefits and dangers for the three stakeholders (banks, consumers and merchants).
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to Introduce Credit Card