Digital Financial Services and Their Integration with Village Banking in Zambia: An Exploratory Study of Wealth Creation, Bwafwano and Tiyeseko Women's Village Banking Groups

Digital financial services (DFS) have transformed financial inclusion by expanding access to affordable, convenient and secure financial products among underserved populations. In Zambia, village banking has become an important community-based financial mechanism that promotes savings mobilisation, access to credit and household economic resilience. Despite increasing adoption of mobile money and digital payment platforms, limited empirical evidence exists on the extent to which digital financial services have been integrated into village banking operations across different socioeconomic settings. This study explored the integration of digital financial services within three village banking groups: Wealth Creation Village Banking Group in Lusaka, Bwafwano Village Banking Group in Kabwe and Tiyeseko Women's Village Banking Group in Kafue District. The study adopted a quantitative exploratory research design involving a population of 210 members, from which a proportionate random sample of 120 respondents was selected following purposive selection of the three groups. Wealth Creation comprised members with relatively high and stable incomes, Bwafwano consisted primarily of Ministry of Education employees with stable but comparatively lower incomes, while Tiyeseko comprised rural women characterised by low and irregular incomes. Data were intended to be analysed using multiple regression analysis to determine the influence of socioeconomic characteristics on digital financial service utilisation and village banking performance. The study contributes to the growing literature on digital financial inclusion by proposing an integrated framework for strengthening village banking through digital technologies and provides policy recommendations for financial institutions, regulators and community-based financial organisations.

Digital Financial Services, Village Banking, Financial Inclusion, Mobile Money, Digital Finance, Zambia, Financial Literacy.

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