Blogs and publications

Globally, fifty-six percent of the unbanked adults are women. In Kenya, the situation is similar. More women are unbanked, in comparison to men. Various steps have been undertaken to address the financial exclusion of women, and though the gender gap has been narrowing over time, it persists.

FSD Kenya in partnership with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Kenya and FSD Kenya ran a survey of micro businesses (MSEs) to track the impacts of COVID-19 on this population. Based on a sample of microbusinesses drawn from the FinAccess 2019 household survey, the survey tracked key metrics such as business revenue, customer flow, employment, use of finance and challenges faced by MSEs between February 2020 (before the pandemic) and July 2021.

This state of the economy report is a data brief on the key macroeconomic and households developments in Q2 an Q3 of 2021 as follows

As the 2021 COP26 came to an end in Glasgow Scotland, consensus resonated around the need to substantially scale up funding for developing countries to assist with the costs of both mitigation and adaptation

The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning has published a draft National Rating Bill 2021 to allow for stakeholder engagement. The Bill seeks to repeal the current Valuation for Rating Act of 1956 (Cap 266) and the Rating Act of 1963 (Cap 267) and seeks to modernize the rating laws to conform them to Article 209 (3) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 which empowers county governments to impose property taxes.

Health shocks have a debilitating impact, especially on low-income households. Such households often lack access to appropriate finance solutions such as insurance to cushion themselves against the related non-routine income expenditures.

The Covid-19 pandemic has raised the profile of climate finance globally adding momentum to the $100 billion in climate finance that was promised by rich countries in 2009.

This research seeks to unearth the financial needs and demands of urban female retail traders in Kenya by exploring how their financial needs are being met, through which instruments, and in turn, where the opportunities lie to drive improved or increased access to financial products.

The earning population in Kenya has risen by May 2021 from a low point in June 2020; but median income has gone down reflecting pressure on the wider economy. Check out the latest wave of the FSD Kenya COVID 19 Tracker to find out more…

2020 was an epic year for mobile money. The Covid-19 pandemic, and the responses to it, precipitated an increase in mobile money usage by nearly every metric.

Through its AfyaPoa range of products, Insurance for All (IFA) has been delivering affordable and relevant protection to underserved Kenyans in the informal sector for over two years.  Intending to broaden its reach through new gig economy partnerships and strengthen and improve its products and distribution approaches, IFA, with support from FSD Kenya and research assistance from 17 Triggers, conducted a four-month research and design phase followed by a six-month pilot.

The creative sector sub-sectors such as crafts, design, film/ motion picture, music/sound recording, Kenyan market hosts a vibrant, varied with creatives in multiple performance arts, photography, visual art among others. Creative enterprises play a unique role in building cultural cohesion, expressing cultural identity, as well as being an important source of jobs and export earnings. Creative enterprises in Kenya are primarily informal with little incentive to register their operations.

In May 2017, a special focus in The Economist likened data to the fuel of the future, noting that “data are to this century what oil was to the last one: a driver of growth and change” predicting that the largest conglomerates of the future will be data-driven firms like Google, Tencent, Amazon, and so on, in much the same way the previous century’s oil and manufacturing conglomerates defined the industrial revolution.  

On Thursday July 29th 2021, FSD Kenya made oral submissions to the Parliamentary Committee reviewing the Landlord and Tenant Bill 2021.

Recent technological innovations in Kenya are going far in supporting the growth of Kenya’s affordable housing market, by providing an opportunity to leapfrog the less flexible systems that have  dominated housing supply in the past.

Restrictions introduced in March 2020 to control the spread of COVID-19 have had a devastating effect on rural livelihoods in Kenya.

Insights from these interviews suggest a number of ideas for intervention to support recovery and rebuilding.

In November 2020, FSD Kenya was invited to co-chair a session at the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Development Symposium. The 2020 symposium, bringing together experts and mid-career professionals from sciences and social sciences, debated the question: ‘How can we build resilience in world of shared resources?’. The symposium focused on 3 areas: economic resources, human resources and natural resources. FSD Kenya was asked to co-chair a session on economic resources together with Eka Ikpe of Kings College London. 

COVID-19 has underlined the need to fundamentally re-imagine the ways in which we produce and distribute resources.

In Kenya, divergence trends continue with macroeconomic resilience masking sustained inequalities and divergence in recovery. On one hand, inflation remains reasonable; export performance has been relatively strong (especially relative to other African countries); diaspora remittances have been robust; and the mobile money sector has demonstrated sustained resilience and growth.

Rather than a ‘cost’ to the state, social protection is an essential component of any sustainable, national economic growth strategy. Most of the world’s successful economies are significant investors in social protection, with spending across the OECD averaging 12 per cent of GDP.

FSD Kenya implemented a four-year pilot graduation project targeting beneficiaries of the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) in Laisamis Sub County (Laisamis, Gudas, Logologo, Korr, Merille, Irrir), which provides a bi-monthly cash transfer of Ksh 5,400 (about US$ 54).

It is hard to believe it has been more than a year since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Kenya, forcing us to make many unanticipated adjustments about the way we worked.

Most significantly, we had to shift to remote working. One year down the line, I am immensely proud of our team for staying the course so far and maintaining our momentum despite the disruption of COVID-19.

Kenya’s credit information sharing (CIS) mechanism has been under development for ten years now since the formal launch in July 2010. Anchored in the Banking Act, the mechanism was primarily
established for institutions licensed under the Banking Act.

The COVID-19 pandemic, termed ‘the Great Disruption’ hit the global economy in 2020 and was defined by divergent impact within and between economies. 2021 is already being defined by multispeed and divergent recovery in the global and local economies.