Mobile Banking and Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Cameroon: Evidence from a 33-Year Time Series Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of mobile banking on the financial performance of commercial banks in Cameroon over a 33-year period (1985–2017). Drawing on secondary data from the World Development Indicators, the IMF Global Financial Development database, and the World Bank, the study analyses an unbalanced bank-year panel of 14 licensed commercial banks and estimates the relationship between mobile banking adoption and bank profitability, measured by Return on Assets (ROA), using multiple regression. Results show that mobile money transfers are positively and significantly associated with ROA at the 1% level in both the short- and long-run specifications, with an adjusted R-squared exceeding 98% in the long-run model. Deposits and credit are also identified as important correlates of performance. These findings are consistent with the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and the Efficient Structure Hypothesis and suggest that the growth of mobile financial services has coincided with improved bank profitability in Cameroon, although the cross-sectional pooling of bank-year observations, unreported diagnostics for stationarity, multicollinearity, and potential endogeneity mean the estimates should be read as strong associations rather than definitive causal effects (see Sections 3.1, 3.4, and 4.5 for a full discussion). The study recommends sustained investment in mobile banking platforms, stronger bank-telecom partnerships, and targeted regulatory frameworks to deepen financial inclusion and sustain performance gains.