Beyond adoption: behavioral drivers of mobile money usage intensification in developing economies – evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite the widespread availability of mobile money in Sub-Saharan Africa, cash remains the dominant medium for daily transactions, reflecting a persistent behavioural gap between access and intensified usage. This study investigates the factors driving the transition from cash dependence to habitual mobile money usage. Guided by the Push–Pull–Mooring framework, we analyze survey data from 407 users in Sub-Saharan Africa using PLS-SEM. The findings demonstrate that trust and perceived benefit are the primary predictors of the intention to increase mobile money usage, serving as the mechanisms that bridge push, pull, and mooring forces. Specifically, perceived usefulness and mobile money self-efficacy bolster both trust and perceived benefits. In contrast, push factors such as transaction inconvenience and perceived risk of cash fail to significantly influence trust or benefit. social acceptability of cash emerged as a mooring factor, eroding perceived benefits while exhibiting a positive association with trust in mobile money. This study extends the PPM framework by isolating social acceptability as a distinct construct, revealing how socio-cultural anchors dictate digital financial transitions within cash-dominant environments. Implications emphasize building trust, enhancing benefits, and addressing social barriers to drive the shift toward increased usage of mobile money for routine transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa.