Kenya has been ranked the top country for the third consecutive
year in a survey on financial and digital inclusion by a US-based public
institution, helped by the wide adoption of mobile money in the local
economy.
Brookings Institution’s Centre for Technology
Innovation, a non-profit organisation based in Washington DC, in its
latest report positioned Kenya at the top of its Financial and Digital
Inclusion Program (FDIP) scorecard in a survey of 26 countries across
the world.
“For the third year in a row, Kenya ranked
at the top of the FDIP scorecard, driven by its robust commitment to
advancing financial inclusion, widespread adoption of mobile money
services among traditionally underserved groups, an increasingly broad
range of mobile money services (including insurance and loan products),
and an enabling regulatory environment for digital financial services,”
the report stated.
“In addition to Kenya, the other
top-scoring countries were distributed across Latin America and
Sub-Saharan Africa: Brazil and Mexico tied for second place, and
Colombia, South Africa, and Uganda tied for third.”
Another
factor was an enabling regulatory environment for digital financial
services. According to Brookings report, 75 per cent of adult Kenyans
have a financial account, with 71 per cent of women owning financial
accounts.
This has been largely driven by the
widespread use of mobile money solutions that have made it easier and
cheaper to send and receive money as well as to take out loans.
Kenya
has achieved a 50 per cent increase in financial inclusion within the
last 10 years, according to a 2016 FinAcess Household Survey.
“The
report is a particularly good illustration of the influence mobile and
digital technologies as drivers of Kenya’s success story on the
innovation front,” said Brand Kenya chief executive Mary Luseka on
Monday.
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