Thesis:

Influence of cashless payment on financial performance of petroleum industry in Burundi; case of Interpetrol company

Inauguration of cashless economy transforms the general driving of an economy in transforming the way business is transacted. There are so many gains attained from a cashless economy which include; increase in monetary framework efficiency via simplified transactions, a decrease in rate of crimes since there is no money at hand for stealing, evils such as money laundering and evasion of taxes are simply dealt with because of paper tracing and expenses of dealing with physical money is minimized. This research was to find out the influence of Cashless payments on the performance of petroleum industry in Bujumbura, Burundi. The specific objectives of this study were; To analyze the effect of credit card, transfer on performance of Petroleum industry in Burundi; To establish the effect of direct debit on financial performance of Petroleum industry in Burundi; To investigate the effect of online transfer on financial performance of Petroleum industry in Burundi; To evaluate the effect of mobile payment on financial performance of petroleum industry in Burundi. The study will be significant to for instance, for scholars and academicians, the research enlightens them more about petroleum sector. Additionally, the research will arouse their interest to analyze deeply the issues of strategy and implementation of strategy in petroleum sector. To government since fuel firms are in the list of the among largest tax remitters and thus, the government is interest in their activities and therefore, strategy in this sector is of paramount to the authority. The authority would in addition apply the study results in its application of cashless transport industry as well. The managers in sales and marketing will apply these results and recommendations of the study to enlighten themselves about elements that prohibit their market penetration. The underpinning theories of this Research were; the Diffusion of innovation Theory financial inclusion theory and The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (ATAUT). The research design was descriptive research, and correlation analysis. The population was 126 employees of 15Petroleum Companies in Burundi and then it was narrowed down through stratified sampling design to 96 members of management from Interpetrol petroleum company as the biggest supplier of petroleum in Burundi and user of cashless payments in Burundi. Data was collected using questionnaires which were distributed through drop and pick method. The information analyzed using both descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (correlation and regression) and it was presented inform of tables. The findings of the study revealed a significantly positive results between cashless payments given that P values were <0.05and 0.01) and the regression model was found fit for the study. One can conclude that cashless form of payments are unavoidable in the current world where new technologies are emerging everyday making businesses and clients adjust to the new changes accordingly. Therefore, the study recommends that management of petroleum firms should embrace the new payment methods since they were seen as reliable and convenience to both business and clients.