Off the wire
• Beijing should do more to protect environment: Inspection team  • Uproar in Indian Parliament over bounty on head of West Bengal's chief minister  • Kenya's economy expected to decelerate to 5.5 pct in 2017  • Feature: Tourism transforms face of Nepal's former forbidden kingdom  • Urgent: German police arrest one Islamist suspect over Dortmund explosions  • China warns India over Dalai's visit to disputed area  • 1st Ld: China launches 1st high-throughput communications satellite  • 1st LD: Explosion rocks near gov't buildings in Afghan capital: witness  • China's CRRC to produce 22 trains for Malaysia  • StarTimes acquires Kenyan broadcast rights to 2018 World Cup  
You are here: 　 Home

Kenya to host regional financial inclusion conference

Xinhua, April 12, 2017 Adjust font size:

Kenya will in May host a regional digital financial inclusion conference to examine how innovative approaches and collaboration between finance and technology can create growth, organizers said on Wednesday.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) will co-host the inaugural Euromoney Kenya Conference to be held on May 9 in Nairobi.

"While Kenya has emerged as the hub for African innovation in technology, the conference will provide a platform for discussions on new fintech propositions for the base of the pyramid and millennial generations," KBA said in a statement.

The conference, themed Financial Inclusion 2.0: Expanding Kenya's Digital Financial Ecosystem, will broadly discuss the development of digital business and the financial ecosystem in Kenya and Africa.

The conference will bring together high level policymakers, business leaders, economists and financiers in a lively mix of speeches, panel discussions and interviews.

According to KBA, financial inclusion holds the promise of harnessing collaboration between financial sector players, including financial service providers and technology service providers, to achieve social ends such as inclusive economic growth, sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

"The choice of Kenya as the country to host this conference reaffirms its global reputation of embracing innovative and disruptive technology as a tool for financial inclusion. This is expected to increase the country's competitiveness and attract foreign direct investments," it said.

The country remains a front runner in financial inclusion through digital innovations. With five mobile telephone service providers, mobile penetration stood at 90 percent as at December 2016, up from 84 percent the previous year.

This, KBA said, is not only closer to the global penetration rate, of 98.6 per but is also significantly higher than the average continental penetration rate of Africa of 76.2 percent.

"This is in addition to other innovations such as M-Akiba and the recently launched KBA PesaLink, the first real time, 24/7 digital platform that interconnects all bank accounts across all channels," KBA said. Endit