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Kenya to use of innovations to achieve universal financial inclusion: officials

Xinhua, May 9, 2017 Adjust font size:

Kenya plans to enhance the use of innovations in order to achieve universal financial inclusion, officials said on Tuesday.

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Dr Patrick Njoroge told a financial forum in Nairobi that with the adoption of mobile financial services and agency banking, among other innovations, financial access has increased from 26.7 percent in 2006 to 75.3 percent in 2016.

"We want to enhance use of innovations so that we overcome the barriers to financial access that hinder rest of the population from accessing the formal or informal financial system," Njoroge said during the inaugural Euromoney Kenya Conference.

The day-long event brought together policymakers, thought leaders, bankers, investors, and entrepreneurs, to deliberate on the economic environment in Africa.

The conference will also offer insights on the strategic challenges and opportunities facing digital finance in the region.

Njoroge said that Kenya is addressing the challenge of how to expand the digital financial services ecosystem beyond basic money transfer, savings, and micro-credit.

"We very much recognize that financial access does not necessarily translate to better living standards but is a journey of a thousand miles that starts with a single step," he added.

Njoroge observed that current innovations have mainly addressed the issue of convenience of financial products and services to the general public.

"As a regulator in the financial sector, our focus now is to enhance the usage of the existing financial innovations as well as assessing the quality of the products and services offered to the consumers," he noted.

The aim is to ensure that other barriers to access such as affordability, and significance of the products and services are addressed.

"For any new innovation that seeks to penetrate the Kenyan market, our first concern is whether it will help bring the excluded population into the formal financial system. This would mean endorsing innovations that are adding value in the financial sector," said the regulator. Enditem