درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The number of international visitors in Tanzania has consistently remained around one million since 2012. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of electronic payment in enhancing financial flow on the performance of tour operators' supply chains, guided by the Technology Acceptance Model. A convergent parallel mixed-method design was employed using a sampling frame comprised of 543 tour operators. A sample of 230 respondents was selected using multi-stage sampling. Primary data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire and an interview guide. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics to compute percentages, means of respondents’ answers, and cross-tabulations. Inferential statistics employing Structural Equation Modeling was applied to test hypotheses through IBM SPSS Amos version 20. Qualitative data were thematically analysed using NVivo version 20. The findings revealed that electronic payment positively and significantly influenced tour operators’ supply chain performance. The results of the Structural Equation Modeling using three indicators namely, perceived security, transaction procedures, and regulatory framework, indicate that electronic payment directly influenced tour operators’ supply chain by increasing sales, Return on Assets, and profit. The study recommends that both the government and tour operators invest in modern electronic payment technologies to influence consumers’ purchase decisions, thereby increasing consumers’ spending. Strategic efforts and collaboration between stakeholders, including government bodies, industry regulators, and tour operators, are essential to create a secure, reliable, and trustworthy environment for the success of e - e-payment systems usage.

Digital banking (DB) is becoming a popular choice for many customers who value convenience and efficiency. However, it is also important to evaluate how well Internet banks perform in terms of customer satisfaction. This study aims to comprehensively identify and evaluate suitable indicators for DB implementation to promote its acceptance among users. Both financial institutions and customers perceive Internet banking services as more convenient compared to conventional branch-based services. We employed two techniques: The Importance-Performance Matrix and the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The Importance-Performance Matrix helped us rank the identified factors according to their importance and urgency for improving the bank’s performance. The analytical hierarchy process helped us compare and weigh the relative importance of various criteria and sub-criteria that affect the bank’s performance. According to our findings, the bank’s performance was influenced by five factors: ease of use, privacy, speed, human resources, and technology. We also discovered that ease of use and privacy were the most urgent factors that required immediate attention from the bank. Therefore, we advise that Tejarat Internet Bank's services focus on enhancing security and ease of use as their top priorities to improve their performance. This research introduces a novel perspective by switching the typical focus of online banking research from corporate entities to individual clients, this research offers an innovative point of view. Our investigation provides valuable insights useful for retail banking and banks that deal with corporate clients by extensively comparing and evaluating the unique requirements of these two consumer segments.

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in Africa's development and is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the agricultural sector is inherently exposed to production risks, and many farmers in the developing world lack access to reliable agricultural insurance coverage. This situation arises due to limited data and knowledge about farmers' insurance needs and the high costs associated with insuring against severe agricultural risks. Promoting agricultural insurance as an instrument can have several significant impacts, aligning with multiple SDGs. It can help stabilize farmers' income, thereby contributing to the goal of reducing poverty (SDG 1). Moreover, agricultural insurance can provide a safety net for food producers, helping them manage the impacts of climate-related risks and aligning with SDG 13, which addresses climate action. Additionally, by enhancing the resilience of farmers and ensuring more predictable income, agricultural insurance can contribute to addressing hunger (SDG 2) and ultimately create a more sustainable and prosperous agricultural sector in Africa. Therefore, this study evaluated agricultural insurance as an instrument for sustainable food supply systems in Nigeria. This study adopted a survey design. This study captured thoughts, experiences, and observations of selected agricultural underwriters in the Nigerian insurance industry through structured questionnaire. A descriptive statistic was employed in the data analysis. This study results indicated that aside from farmers’ awareness which showed some level of yardstick with respect to farmers behavioural metrics, all other metrics played no significant roles. It was also recorded that why farmers’ age, gender, family size and farming experience have no significant roles in the uptake of agricultural insurance, all other participatory factors have major effects. The study contributed significantly to knowledge with the graphical representations of the challenges confronting the agricultural insurers in Nigeria. The study provided suitable recommendations that endear achievable SDGs in Nigeria.

In light of recent price swings in oil and the need to reduce the country's dependency on the commodity, the government of Nigeria has implemented a number of reforms and initiatives to stimulate the non-oil sector of the economy, most notably the informal sector. Government financial support as interventions would have otherwise been a relief in changing the narrative of ugly financial accessibility of participants in the informal sector. The level of financial accessibility and its relationship to the economic performance of participants in the informal sector have been largely understudied. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to assess the shortcomings of current government interventions in the informal sector and to provide a viable financial intervention structure to address these issues. This research included both primary and secondary sources of information. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from respondents. A total of 700 informal sector participant who are mainly SMEs operators, 300 registered and 400 unregistered, were chosen using a purposeful selection technique from the six states of Southwest Nigeria. Data was examined in two ways using SPSS: descriptive and inferential. Thus, the study showed the flaws of the past interventions, such as a faulty programme design, bias in the distribution of financing facilities, a lack of knowledge about the facilities, and convoluted procedures for gaining government funding support.