CASHLESS ECONOMY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN RWANDA CASE STUDY OF RUBAVU DISTRICT (2021-2023)

Abstract

The present study on the impact of cashless economy to the socio-economic development of Rwanda, a case of Rubavu District (2021-2023), The general objective of this study was to examine the impact of cashless economy to the socio-economic development of Rwanda The specific objectives were to analyze the components of cashless economy in Rwanda, to find out challenges faced by Rwanda in cashless process, to assess the socio-economic living conditions of residents, and to establish the relationship between cashless economy and socio-economic development of Rubavu District from 2021 up to 2023. Descriptive research design was adopted for this study using quantitative methods of data collection. The study used a sample of Rubavu District residents selected using purposive sampling techniques. The study used primary data collected by questionnaire. Secondary data were collected using document analysis techniques. In order to achieve objectives, data were collected from selected respondents to generalize the results of the study. The researcher found that there is a statistically significant correlation between cashless economy and socio-economic development; as correlation coefficients was 0.831 (83.1%).The main conclusion was made that cashless economy contributes to the socio-economic development. The main recommendation was made to Rubavu District that it should make sure that continuous and target oriented trainings are available to population, that target based policies should be put in place and population centred decision making should also be applied in order to highly motivate population through cashless instruments use. Based on the conceptual framework, researcher found the relationship between cashless economy and socio-economic development of Rubavu District .All responses related to the interview guide of the cashless economy were summarized to generate a representative independent variable while all responses related to the socio-economic development of Rubavu District were totaled to give the dependent variable. As the study is based on ordinal data, Spearman correlation coefficient was used to generate correlation between cashless economy and socio-economic development of Rubavu District.