British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade

15(1): 1-11, 2016, Article no.BJEMT.28490

ISSN: 2278-098X

SCIENCEDOMAIN international
www.sciencedomain.org

Assessing Factors That Predict Customers Choice

of Bank in Ho Municipality, Ghana
Francois Mahama1*, Edinam Agbemava2, Solomon Yemidi3
and Kunu Etornam Kwame1
1
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Ho Polytechnic, Ghana.
2
Department of Accountancy, Ho Polytechnic, Ghana.
3
Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, Ho Polytechnic, Ghana.

Authors contributions

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author FM designed the study, wrote
the protocol, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Authors EA, KEK and SY managed the
literature searches and analyses of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Article Information

DOI: 10.9734/BJEMT/2016/28490
Editor(s):
(1) LI Hui, School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Normal University, China.
Reviewers:
(1) Rebecca Abraham, Nova Southeastern University, USA.
(2) Baofeng Shi, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.
Complete Peer review History: http://www.sciencedomain.org/review-history/16082

st
Received 21 July 2016
Original Research Article Accepted 18th August 2016
Published 7th September 2016

ABSTRACT
This study seeks to determine the factors predicting customers choice of bank in Ho, Ghana. A
descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted among 350 randomly selected bank customers of
Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of bank choice. Results show that six
factors were significant in predicting customers choice of bank in Ho, Ghana. It is suggested that
banks should take proper cognizance of these factors as a guide in designing their future strategies
for competitive advantage. Also, management of banks should try to maintain customer
convenience with their bank location strategically. Finally, the enhancement of security would give
confidence to the customers to have a particular bank as a preference hence better secure feelings
given from the banks to the customer. It would make customers be more inclined and comfortable to
make transaction and choose their bank products and services because they feel it is protected and
trusted.

Keywords: Customers; predict; choice; bank; logistic regression.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Corresponding author: E-mail: statisticalmagic@yahoo.com;

 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490
1. INTRODUCTION
Banking and other financial institutions in Ghana
play a critical role in building the economy
through the provision of capital in diverse forms.
Banks facilitate the accumulation and allocation
of capital by funnelling savings into loans to
governments, businesses and individuals. The
recent worldwide credit crunch which carried
some notable banks into oblivion has affected
the performance of many banks globally. Thus,
to survive in the long run, institutions have
realized the need to adopt sound strategies to
compete in better ways while being cautious.
Just like the economy in general, banking has an
interesting history: moving from tightly controlled
the post-independent era, through various
phases of relaxation, to the present where it is
purely market-driven. With the passage of the
universal banking law, all types of banking can
be conducted under a single corporate banking
entity and this has greatly reorganised the
competitive scopes of the several banking
products in Ghana [1]. The banking industry has
been characterized by increasing competition
since the early 1980s. This has been the result of
a number of interrelated factors such as
competition and deregulation that have
revolutionized the distribution of many financial
services [2]. In other words, an increased
competition resulting from a decade of
deregulation of the financial services industry
has meant that banks find themselves faced with
the task of differentiating their organizations and
their offerings as a means of attracting
customers.
The issue of how customers select their banks
has been given considerable attention by
researchers [3]. Exploring such information will
help banks to identify the appropriate marketing
strategies that are needed to attract new
customers and retain existing ones. With
growing competitiveness in the banking
industry [4] and similarity of services offered
by banks [5], it has become increasingly
important that banks identify the factors
that determine the basis upon which customers
choose between providers of financial
services.
Banks which are planning to cultivate this vibrant
market segment must understand how
individuals belonging to such segments select
their banks. In the banking industry of Ghana,
high customer attraction is hypothesised to be
linked to high firm performance. Bankers
2
consider customer attraction and loyalty as
important to market share maintenance and
profitability. Because of the high customer
defection, the debate as to what informs
customer choice is still rife. Usually, the
marketing plans of organizations do fail at
implementation due to improper identification of
the factors or determinants that consumers
consider in selecting who to deal with [6]. And as
clearly expressed by [7], we should not accept
or reject assumptions and speculations, unless
we study these assumptions critically and unless
we find logical and reliable explanations to
accept or reject them. Thus, though several
studies investigate the issue of factors affecting
selection of retail banks; very few have
attempted to directly link the factors of
preference to specific banks [8].
The first prominent and published article on
choice criteria regarding banking is completed by
[9], who find that there are two segments of
consumers. The first segment consists of service
oriented consumers who view banks as
meaningfully different. The second, larger
segment consists of convenience oriented
consumers who classify banks as quite similar in
offering undifferentiated services. The segments
are derived on the following choice criteria:
friends recommendations, reputation,
availability of credit, friendliness of bank
personnel and service charges on checking
accounts. However, Andersons sampling
method and determinant attribute method is
questioned by [10]. In their opinion, Andersons
method neglects the significant importance of the
location aspect.
An investigates was also done on choice criteria
among Swedish bank customersby [11]. Her
findings indicate that decisions are made more
randomly than one would expect. Although the
majority of the respondents use more than one
bank, the most important choice criteria are:
bank location, availability of loans and payment
of salary. In addition, especially young
respondents are highly influenced by their
parents. With this finding, Martenson highlights
the importance of parental influences on young
consumers.
A study by [12] discovered quite a similar result
as [9]. Locational aspects, friendliness of
personnel, speed of service and convenience are
of great importance, whereas media advertising
is perceived as ineffective in the selection
decision. Since most choice criteria are important
 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490

with regard to savings accounts and checking 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

accounts, differences among demographic
groups are present. 2.1 Concept of Consumer Choice
Behaviour
In line with these researches, the service charge
policy of banks is an important determinant for
According to [17] consumer behaviour is a
choosing a particular bank. This importance is
process when people select, purchase, use or
supported by [13], who discovered service to be
dispose of a product, services, ideas or
more important than speed, access and price.
experiences to satisfy needs and desires. The
The importance of service in making a bank
idea of understanding consumer behaviour in
choice identified by [14].
making a choice as stepwise decision making
process is one that is common in marketing [18,
Moreover, [15] investigates the impact of
19]. The decision-making process itself is
consumer financial knowledge on bank choices.
theoretically considered as a logical flow of
Her findings indicate that consumers with low
activities, working from problem recognition to
financial knowledge choose their bank purely on
purchase to post-purchase evaluation. This
location or based on recommendation by others.
decision-making process is affected by a number
These factors are also important to consumers
of other more complex influences. Some of these
with high financial knowledge, although service,
influences relate to the wider environment in
interest rates and low fees are of more
which the decision is being made while others
importance to them.
relate to the individual who makes the decision.
Consumer behaviour is defined by [20] as those
As a result of these studies, the amount of choice
activities directly involved in obtaining,
criteria considered have grown from 15 to 22
consuming, and disposing of products and
[16]. This indicates that choice criteria of
services, including the decision processes that
consumers are not stable and need to be
precede and follow these actions. Thus, in the
updated in time in order to ensure that banks
marketing context, the term consumer
focus on the most relevant choice criteria.
behaviour refers not only to the act of purchase
Hence, there is need for banks, like other service
itself but to any pre and post-purchase activities
organizations, to effectively identify the important
[21]. According to [22], pre-purchase activities
parameters that attract customers attention and
include the growing awareness of a want or
help in their choice of banks to do business with.
need, and the search for and evaluation of
In addition, there is the need for banks to know
information about the product and brands that
how customers choose their banks and take
might satisfy it. Post-purchase activities include
measures to attract them before others do.
the evaluation of the purchased item in use, and
Therefore, this study aims at using a binary
any attempt to reduce feelings of anxiety which
logistic regression to model factors that predict
frequently accompany the purchase of expensive
customers choice of bank.
and infrequently bought items or services. Each
of these has implications for choice decisions
While this study is predominantly based on the
and is amenable to marketing communications
primary data from customers, the results cannot
and the other elements of the marketing mix. Our
be generalized, since the research is based on a
understanding of both consumer behaviour and
non-probability sampling technique. As such, the
the capacity of marketing activities to influence it
data collected may not be 100% reflection of
rest on knowledge of the ways in which
what is truly obtainable in the target population,
consumers form decisions [21].
moreover respondents may bias information with
a view towards pleasing the researcher or
Consumer behaviour is not only influenced by
perhaps for self-gratification, thus, affecting the
external factors like financial benefits, but also by
findings of this research. More so, the study was
their attitudes and expectations. These attitudes
limited to only Ho Township, therefore
and expectations are constantly changing in
generalizations drawn may not be applicable to
response to a continuous flow of events,
the whole of Ghana. Finally, this research did not
information and personal experiences. There is
provide the information on whether a customer
no guarantee that consumers will respond in the
provided an opinion related to one particular
same way in the same situation, since they are
bank, since it is unknown if the customer has
capable of applying behaviour to changed
accounts with two banks.
circumstances [23]. The consumer decision-

3
 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490
making process pioneered by [24] in examining
consumer purchasing behaviour toward goods
and services involves a five-stage decision
process. This includes problem recognition,
search, evaluation of alternatives, choice, and
outcome. Deweys decisionmaking framework
viewed the consumer as an information
processor, manipulating information through the
various stages of the decision process, and
suggested that the process, at least theoretically,
applied to the full range of consumer decisions.
This framework was adopted and extended by
[18,25]. A study by [25] suggested that
consumers may regress to a preceding stage of
the problem solving process at any point in order
to redefine the initial problem, search for new
information, or to re-evaluate potential problem
solutions. The consumer may also discontinue
the problem solving process at any stage due to
changes in their desired or actual state.
Furthermore, the intervention of environmental
factors such as income, cultural, family, social
and physical factors also constraint consumers
from advancing to the first four stages in the
consumer decision-making process: the problem
recognition stage, the search stage, the
evaluation of alternative stage, and the choice
stage.
Analogous to [24], consumer decision-making
process for goods, [26] suggested the decision-
making process could be applied to services.
The five stages of the consumer decision
making process operationalized by these
researchers were: need recognition, information
search, evaluation of alternatives, purchases and
consumption, and post-purchase evaluation.
They implied that in purchasing services, these
five stages do not occur in a linear sequence as
they usually do in the purchase of goods. In
addition, there are a number of generalizations
which have been postulated to differentiate some
aspects of consumer behaviour in services from
goods [26].
The variables that consumers use to evaluate
service alternatives come in many forms. The
number of variables involved, as well as the way
they influence consumers evaluation of
alternatives varies according to the type of
situation [19]. According to [23] a financial crisis
is one of such circumstances. In the view of [27]
the economic pessimism leads to a decline in
willingness to make large expenditures and debt
commitments. Moreover, according to the TNS
Financial Crisis Study, people are changing their
financial behaviour in response to the crisis.
4
People are putting all their money in cash or
buying crisis-proof products. Others spread their
money between several banks or are changing
their current bank. There are four factors
consumers focus on when dealing with perceived
risks in times of uncertainty [28]. The first thing is
reputation. In times of choosing a bank, many
customers feel uncertain basing their choice on
many factors and generally presume that
reputation can provide protection for the
organization [29]. Reputation can reduce
consumers uncertainty associated with a
competitive and potentially hostile environment
like a first encounter. The second factor is
information gathering. In times of uncertainty it is
proven that information supply is more important
for consumers. With more reliable information
they can make better decisions that reduce risks
as much as possible. The third strategy is relying
on the expertise of the salesperson or in this
case the expertise of the bank. The fourth and
final strategy consumers use is searching for
guarantees that reduce risks. When buying a
service these are usually not-good-money-back-
guarantees but at least helps to rationalize all
perceived negatives as positive. The way people
deal with uncertainty differs from person to
person. Some consumers have a risk seeking
personality while others are more risk averse.
Also the cultural environment influence peoples
attitude towards risks and varies among cultures
[30].
2.2 Marketing in the Banking Sector
For a long time, the banking sector tended to
perceive their business very narrowly as selling
the use of money [12]. This mindset was
responsible for not implementing marketing
techniques by banks, while manufacturing
industries already used these techniques [9].
Since service companies had a less structured
marketing department and allocated a rather
small budget, they did not implement techniques
to differentiate themselves from competitors or to
meet customers needs [31]. In their opinion, the
banking sector sold a commodity and one banks
product is no greener or crisper than anothers
[9]. Therefore, the industry did not use methods
like segmentation, positioning and product
differentiation to meet customers needs more
adequately. This philosophy changed when
banks realized that fulfilling customer needs was
more than merely providing the use of money.
Increasing competition and acceptance of the
trust companies were responsible for this change
[12]. This mindset change also impacted the
 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490
decision complexity of consumers when banks
began to offer multiple possibilities to fulfil these
personal needs. The consumer has to consider
multiple aspects, prior to making a bank choice,
whereas in the past this was not necessary. This
decision-making process became of great
importance to bank managers, when research
justified that customers are typically loyal to their
bank and stay there for a long time [32].
However, this loyalty is more driven by high
switching barriers instead of loyalty in the strict
sense of its meaning [33]. Nonetheless,
customer loyalty creates possibilities for cross-
selling once the consumer has become a
customer [34].
2.3 Consumer Decision-making Process
As a result of increased choices and improved
product offerings by banks, financial services
became intangible and rather complex.
Therefore, consumers had to develop more
analytical, sophisticated and systematic skills
that became useful in their buying decisions
[35,36]. They perceived financial services as
high-risk purchases, resulting in consumers
becoming more demanding [37]. These high-
involvement products need to be analysed in
order to obtain a thorough understanding of the
right choice, implying multiple phases need to be
passed to reach the final decision. This decision-
making process consists of steps such as
problem recognition, information search,
processing the information to evaluate
alternatives and finally the decision itself [38]. In
this context, the information-processing phase is
of most interest since consumers evaluate
alternatives based on their own judgements and
evaluation criteria. Especially in retail stores,
consumers compare characteristics of the stores,
which they determine by themselves, based on
A total sample of 350 was taken from the target
population. The study employed a probabilistic
sampling technique, precisely simple random
sampling. This sampling technique is being used
because it gives equal chance to each member
of the population of interest to be selected
without bias.
Data for the study was obtained using structured
questionnaire. The questionnaire had two
sections. The first section consisted of
demographic information such as age, and
monthly income level of respondents. The
second section dealt with factors that influence
customers choice of Bank.
Data analysis was done using binary logistic
regression to determine the factors that were
related to customers choice of a bank. The
logistic regression model has also been used to
identify variables that have been influential in
customers choice of a bank. Specifically, the
study seeks to find out if some factors (
) tend to
influence the likelihood of customers choice of
bank ().
This type of regression model has been chosen
because the outcome variable () involved in this
study is a dichotomous variable. Whereas linear
regression model attempts to estimate the mean
(or expected) value of the outcome variable ()
given the values of the explanatory variables
( ) , the objective in models with qualitative
outcome variable, as in this study, is to estimate
the probability of observing the outcome variable
(i.e. a customers choice of bank) given these
factors. The customers choice of bank can be
characterised by the relation which was
proposed by [39].
1 1
) = = 1)
their own evaluation criteria [18]. Therefore, 1 + 
 1 + 
   )
several criteria like brand choice and location
feature in the consideration set. Since the for  ranging from 1 to k.
wide range of brands often creates
information-processing problems for ") = ) is the probability of customers
consumers, the mind tries to simplify the choice of bank; # is a constant, $ is the
decision. estimated coefficients,
% s are the independent
variables. From the expression, the probability
3. METHODS AND ANALYTICAL TOOLS of a customers choice of bank increases with
a unit increase in the independent variable
This study used descriptive, cross-sectional when a coefficient of independent variable
study design. The setting was the Ho Township is positive. In this research work, the
in Volta Region, Ghana. There are eleven (11) logistic regression technique is used to
banks in Ho Township. The study was conducted construct a model to predict and classify
on customers who visited banks in Ho. customer data.

5
 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION perceived service quality, availability and

reliable electronic services, convenience of
This subsection looks at the summary statistics branch location, and Security issues of the
of the respondents. A total of 350 customers bank. These suggest that they have been rated
completed the questionnaire. Table 1 high by the majority of the respondents as having
summarizes the socio-demographic information been influencing their choice of bank. Other set
of the respondents. of variables are very conspicuous in the table
and must be considered for scrutiny.
From the Table 1, 172 respondents which
represent 49.1% were males and 178 of them Table 1. Demographic information of the
which represent 50.9% were females; in which respondents (n=350)
57.4% were between the ages of 21-30; 27.4%
were between 31-40, 10.3% were between the Variable Frequency Percent
ages of 41-50; 3.4% were less than 20 years of Gender
age; and 1.5% of them were above 50. With Male 172 49.1
regards to marital status, 213 of the respondents Female 178 50.9
which represent 60.9% have never married, 130 Age
of them which represent 37.1% were married, Less than 20 12 3.4
and finally 7 of them which represent 2.0% were 21-30 201 57.4
separated/divorced. 31-40 96 27.4
41-50 36 10.3
The distribution of the respondents according to Above 50 5 1.5
their level of education appears to be evenly Marital status
spread among Senior High School (SHS) and Never married 213 60.9
Tertiary; both constituting a significantly large Married 130 37.1
portion of the respondents out of the total Separated/Divorced 7 2.0
population; implying that views leading to
conclusion drawn from this study could be largely The Table 3 reveals that there exist inter-
attributed to respondents with SHS and Tertiary correlations among the variables, implying that
certificate. the indicator variables correlate quite highly with
one another. This multicollinearity among the
Table 2 indicated that high mean values were variables should be an indication that there exist
recorded for some indicator variables such as similarities in the respondents ratings of the

140
128
124
120

100 94

80

60

40

20
4
0
Basic JHS SHS Tertiary

Fig. 1. Distribution of respondents by level of education

6
 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of indicator variables

Mean Std. deviation

Convenience of branch location 4.25 .914
Effective and efficient Customer Services 3.41 1.390
Bank Reputation 3.18 1.417
Availability and reliable electronic services 4.33 1.180
Low service charges 3.03 1.304
Range of services/Product offerings 3.54 1.275
Extended operational hours 2.62 1.173
Availability of parking facilities 2.65 .987
Reasonable interest rates charge 2.57 1.054
Security issues of the bank 4.01 1.162
Ambience of the banking hall 2.49 1.075
Perceived service quality 4.84 1.150
Timely service delivery and reliability 3.85 1.182

twenty factors influencing employee turnover.
The correlation coefficient must be 0.3 or greater
since anything lower would suggest a really weak
relationship between the variables [40]. Thus, the
highest correlation value of 0.68 recorded
between X4 (Availability and reliable electronic
services) and X12 (Perceived service quality)
indicates that about 68% of the respondents
rated availability and reliable electronic services
and perceived service quality almost the same.
a bank was convenience of location. It is also
consistent with the observations of [42] which
revealed that safety of fund; efficient service
quality and speed of transactions have significant
positive influence on customers bank selection
decision.
Thus the logistic function is given by equation (2)
below:
More so, there is a relatively high correlation "'()*+-.) =
between variable X1 (Convenience of branch
location) and X7 (Extended operational hours), 1
X2 (Effective and efficient Customer Services)
/.012
3.34563./1053.1631
3.33703.300633.6/06/)
and X3 (Bank reputation), and X8 (Availability of
parking facilities) and X9 (Reasonable interest
rates charge). Although there are some few
negative correlations too among the variables,
showing an inverse relationship, none of them
appear to be high.
Table 4 shows the result of logistic regression
estimates of the various factors predicting
customers choice of bank. The significance
value of the Wald statistics for each independent
variable indicates that overall customer attributes
can project customer bank choice (P<0.05).
From the table, column six (6) determines the
significant predictor variables at 0.05 level of
significance. These variables are, X1
(Convenience of branch location), X4 (Availability
and reliable electronic services), X7 (Extended
operational hours), X9 (Reasonable interest rates
charge), X10 (Security issues of the bank), and
X12 (Perceived service quality).
These findings support the research results of
[41] which indicated that the most important
variable influencing customer choice in selecting
7
1 + 
2)
Furthermore, the odd ratio ( 9:;$)) for the
significant factors, shows the increase (or
decrease if the ratio is less than one) in odds of
being in one outcome category (choose or not
choose) when the value of the predictor
increases by one unit. From Table 2, the odds or
risk of customer choosing a bank, is 0.967 for X1
(Convenience of branch location). This indicates
that, when the bank location is convenient for the
customer, the risk of choosing a bank decreases
by a factor of 0.967, all other factors being equal.
For X4 (Availability and reliable electronic
services), the odd ratio of 1.322 indicates that
risk of customer choosing a bank, is 1.322 times
higher for a customer who has a problem with
availability and reliable electronic service than for
those who do not worry about the factor, all other
factors being equal.
Also for X7 (Extended operational hours) the odd
ratio is 2.034 which means that for any extended
operational hours of the bank, the risk of
choosing that bank decreases by a factor of
 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490

Table 3. Correlation among the thirteen indicator variables

X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12 X13

X1 1
X2 0.18 1
X3 0.15 0.51 1
X4 0.12 0.15 0.14 1
X5 0.10 0.13 -0.02 0.19 1
X6 0.01 0.20 0.08 0.09 -0.06 1
X7 0.53 -0.22 -0.33 -0.14 0.03 -0.29 1
X8 -0.18 -0.27 -0.33 -0.12 0.04 -0.15 0.45 1
X9 -0.18 -0.27 -0.33 -0.23 0.06 -0.23 0.34 0.49 1
X10 -0.46 -0.02 0.06 -0.12 0.10 0.05 0.09 0.10 0.20 1
X11 -0.08 0.26 0.31 -0.10 -0.07 0.05 -0.20 0.05 -0.14 0.11 1
X12 -0.08 0.32 0.34 0.68 0.16 0.12 -0.10 -0.26 -0.23 0.15 0.16 1
X13 0.12 0.15 0.14 1.00 0.18 0.09 -0.14 -0.12 -0.23 -0.12 -0.10 0.28 1

Definition of variables that Predict Customers Choice of Bank:

X1= Convenience of branch location
X2= Effective and efficient Customer Services
X3= Bank Reputation
X4= Availability and reliable electronic services
X5= Low service charges
X6= Range of services/Product offerings
X7= Extended operational hours
X8= Availability of parking facilities
X9= Reasonable interest rates charge
X10=Security issues of the bank
X11=Ambience of the banking hall
X12=Perceived service quality
X13=Timely service delivery and reliability

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 Mahama et al.; BJEMT, 15(1): 1-11, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.28490

Table 4. Logistic regression estimates for factors that predict customers choice of bank

B S.E. Wald df Sig. Exp(B) 95% C.I.for EXP(B)

Lower Upper
X1 -0.034 0.251 0.018 1 0.002 0.967 0.592 1.581
X2 -0.236 0.168 1.970 1 0.160 0.790 0.568 1.098
X3 -0.741 0.206 12.933 1 0.894 0.476 0.318 0.714
X4 0.279 1.928 0.021 1 0.000 1.322 0.030 57.837
X5 -0.839 0.194 18.642 1 0.581 0.432 0.295 0.632
X6 1.048 0.230 20.786 1 0.885 0.995 1.818 4.477
X7 0.710 0.301 5.546 1 0.019 2.034 1.126 3.672
X8 0.332 0.349 0.907 1 0.341 1.394 0.703 2.764
X9 -0.005 0.254 0.000 1 0.000 2.853 0.605 1.636
X10 0.099 0.203 0.238 1 0.000 0.906 0.608 1.348
X11 -0.442 0.324 1.866 1 0.172 0.643 0.341 1.212
X12 0.129 0.233 0.305 1 0.023 0.879 0.557 1.388
X13 0.480 1.929 0.062 1 0.803 1.617 0.037 70.891
Constant 2.976 2.441 3.904 1 0.048 0.008

2.034, all other factors being equal. The odd ratio
for X9 (Reasonable interest rates charge) also
indicate that customers who do not perceive
interest rates charges as reasonable were 2.853
times more likely to choose the bank as
compared to those who do not perceive interest
rates charges as reasonable. Also the odd ratio
of 0.906 for X10 (Security issues of the bank)
means that customers who do not perceive a
banks security as high were 0.906 times more
likely not to choose that bank as compared with
those who perceived a banks security as high,
all other factors being equal.
Finally, the odd ratio of 0.879 for X12 (Perceived
service quality) indicates that, when customers
perceive a bank service as quality, the risk of
choosing that bank decreases by a factor of
0.879, all other factors being equal.
Also form the table, the 95% Wald confidence
limit shows the confidence interval (C.I.) for the
odds ratio for the other predictors in the model.
For a given predictor with a level of 95%
confidence, we can infer that there is 95%
confidence that the true population odds ratio lies
between the lower and upper limit of the interval.
5. CONCLUSION
The study revealed that six (6) factors; X1
(Convenience of branch location), X4 (Availability
and reliable electronic services), X7 (Extended
operational hours), X9 (Reasonable interest rates
charge), X10 (Security issues of the bank), and
X12 (Perceived service quality) were statistically
significant in the prediction of customer choice of
bank with a predicted switching rate of 86.85%.
This indicates that there is probability that
86.85% of customers will choose a bank based
on the given characteristics. The study reported
here confirms existing knowledge by [43] that
suggested that convenience and bank locations
were the most important factor in bank choice. A
comparative study done by [44] between three
American universities and two Ghanaian
universities also found convenience to be related
to bank selection choices in which they defined
convenience as the number of locations where a
bank has facilities.
The study's finding on availability and reliable
electronic services has a relation with the
findings of [45] and [46] which noted that
availability of electronic services at any hour of
the day is important in choosing a bank.
Findings of [46] and that of [47] which stated that
popular and reputable banks may appeal to
customers and also a good brand name may
influence the idea of how reliable a bank is
perceived to be are in contrary to findings of this
study.
Furthermore, result of the study is consistent with
findings of a study done by [48] which found that
feeling secure is the most important dimension
which affect customers in their choice of bank
and that this dimension consists of the financial
stability of the bank as well as the interest rates
offered.
Therefore, banks should take proper cognizance
of these factors as a guide in designing their
future strategies for competitive advantage. Also,
management of banks should try to maintain

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