Abstract

The vitality of technology utilisation by banks in establishing competitiveness in rural areas is unarguable. The computer-mediated environment has profound implications particularly in the banking sector and it is widely acknowledged that customers increasingly require instant gratification through the use of new technologies. This paper provides primary information to guide banks in structuring their marketing strategies, quality improvements and business processes on the backdrop of rural milieus. A sample of 100 respondents from various banks found in Alice was utilised in the primary research surveys. Importantly, the majority of the respondents indicated that they were influenced to bank with a bank which uses advanced modern banking technologies. However, recent banking methods such as cellphone and internet banking reflected very low levels of usage by customers. The majority of respondents prefer modern banking methods to traditional methods unfortunately, there is a huge gap between ownership and usage of e-banking resources entailing that there is no effective utilisation of technologies owned by rural customers.

Key words: E-banking, rural markets, consumer perceptions.