Did Mobile Payments Make Difference in "Unbanked" Rural Communities? Empirical Evidence from the Electronic Money Transform System of the Bangladesh Post Office

This study illustrates that a technologically less sophisticated e-government application can be successful as long as it has a proper fit of task and technology. A mobile payment service EMTS of the Bangladesh Post Office reported a dramatic increase in the number of electronic money orders issued and amount of money transferred through the system. As expected, EMTS shortened the money order delivery time from several days to a day. Commission earning from money order business has increased and became BPO's major source of earning in 2011. However, EMTS has limited success in assisting the unbanked citizens in rural areas because of a smaller number of post offices that support EMTS. Authors suggest that e-government be viewed as a collection of individual online information and services applications each of which is examined depending on task-technology fit.