Reflections on promotion of digital payments among smallholder tea farmers in kanungu district

Abstract

The study aimed to reflect on the promotion of digital payments among smallholder tea farmers in Kanungu District, Uganda. The study was guided by specific objectives, namely, investigating the effect of digital payments on financial deepening, assessing the effect of inflation rates on Uganda's economic literacy, determining the influence of per capita income on Uganda's economic literacy, and evaluating the effect of foreign direct investment on Uganda's economic literacy. The study used a descriptive research design utilizing a quantitative approach. The average cash payment was 3,862,241,831 before the introduction of digital payments such as mobile money and banks and after the introduction of digital systems, the cash payment decreased significantly to 3,895,754. However, after introducing digital systems, the payment of smallholder farmers increased significantly from 2,379,988,876 to 2,500,825,890 which implies that there was a huge improvement as well as an increase in the profitability rate of the factory. There was a strong significant negative relationship between digital payments and gross domestic product (-0.768). Understanding the factors that influence the adoption of digital payments can assist in identifying the obstacles that hinder some societal groups from using digital financial services. Then, specific actions can be developed by policymakers as well as financial institutions to encourage financial inclusion. The flexibility of the created models to satisfy the requirements of agricultural stakeholders and to react to their limits is crucial for the success of innovative tools in rural areas.