21-22 January 2021

Professor Victor Murinde presented a paper at the Sustainable Financial Innovation Centre (SFiC) Virtual Annual Conference held at the University of Birmingham on 21-22 January 2021. The conference was jointly convened by: Professor Douglas Cumming, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University and Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham; Professor Sofia Johan, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University; and Professor Hisham Farag, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.

Professor Murinde joined the theme on "Developments in Financial Technology" and presented his paper (co-authored with Morakinyo Adetutu and Kayode Odusanya of Loughborough University, Robert Lensink of the University of Groningen and Frank Ogbeide of the University of Benin) on "Network infrastructure, mobile financial technologies and financial inclusion: Evidence from a micro-spatial approach". The paper provides the first ever econometric assessment of the relevance of ICT infrastructure diffusion to the adoption of branchless banking technologies among the rural unbanked populations in developing countries. It also draws on a unique dataset that combines proprietary geo-referenced cell tower information with a spatially-explicit nationally representative micro-survey data; the former is made possible by cell tower equipment which facilitate wireless communication between phones and mobile networks, including radio antennas, transceivers, and amplifiers.