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Blogs and publications

Digital credit: not every winner must create a loser

The first article in a blog series examining the Kenyan credit market by FSD Kenya drew an analogy between the recent forest fires in the Amazon Jungle and the explosion of digital credit in Kenya.

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Consumer insights
Blogs and publications

Digital credit audit report: Evaluating the conduct and practice of digital lending in Kenya

Digital credit has been instrumental in granting formal credit in ways that were not conceivable a decade ago. It has provided individuals with the tools to manage their day-to-day needs and working capital for small enterprises.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Bridging the gender divide: implications for Kenya’s 21st century pathway to inclusive growth

Natasha is a young woman who has a cake baking business on the outskirts of Nairobi. She has a bank account for her business which she uses intensively. Natasha’s business was doing well and she needed a loan to expand.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Kenya’s youth and the long road to skill-based work

Combining education, apprenticeship, and start-up capital to surmount barriers and transform trajectories 

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Digital Credit – The most pressing problem in Kenyan credit markets – Really?

The focus on the potential and real risks of digital credit, while commendable, runs the risk of taking our collective eye off the wider credit market, which has a much more significant impact on Kenya’s economy.

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Article
Blogs and publications

Harnessing the market potential of financially underserved Kenyans

On the 5th of September 2019, the Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), held a stakeholder validation workshop in Nairobi, where they presented the findings of a research study that identified seven key financially underserved segments of the Kenyan population and discussed the potentially viable business cases and policy implications that financial market players could tap into.

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Article
Blogs and publications

Welcoming Anzetse Were

Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya is pleased to announce that Anzetse Were has joined the team as Economist, effective September 2019.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

What’s Twitter got to do with consumer protection?

Social media is changing customer service by shifting the ways in which consumers seek resolution of problems and the communications channels that firms make available to consumers.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Exploring the economic potential of underserved segments of the Kenyan population

In April 2019, the 2019 FinAccess Household Survey revealed that Kenya had made extraordinary strides in financial inclusion. While FinAccess 2019 shows that financial inclusion has peaked at 83% among Kenyans, its findings also evoke poignant questions.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Did you see my Tweet? Kenyans’ cries for financial consumer protection ring out on social media

The use of an alert system that flagged Twitter conversations on consumer protection topics, when they rose above certain thresholds, shows promise as a new consumer protection market monitoring tool that we could use in Kenya to address the substantial gaps in consumer protection monitoring and enforcement.

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Financial service providers
Blogs and publications

Did you see my tweet? Monitoring financial consumer protection via social media

Social media is changing customer service by shifting the ways in which consumers seek resolution of problems and the channels that firms make available to consumers.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Please, no snails in my beer: Should a duty of care be introduced for financial service providers?

Manufacturers of cars or microwave machines are duty bound to ensure that their products are safe for use. Why can’t financial regulation introduce a similar obligation to ensure financial products and services are not negligently developed and sold, causing harm to consumers?

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Inclusive finance? Not there yet…

As I reflect on my first month leading FSD Kenya, I am struck by both the challenges we face as well as the opportunities we can seize to truly create value through inclusive finance in Kenya.

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FinAccess
Blogs and publications

Inclusive Finance? Headline findings from FinAccess 2019

Kenya aims to become a middle-income country by 2030, delivering a high quality of life to all. Finance plays a central role in our economy, facilitating trade and underpinning the efficient pooling and allocation of resources and risk.

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Annual reports
Blogs and publications

2018 Annual report

FSD Kenya’s work is increasingly focused on trying to help harness the on-going disruption of the sector in a way which will create real value for people.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

What solutions would make a difference in education finance?

Education presents an opportunity for poor households to break out of the poverty cycle in future. What are some of the interventions and finance solutions that have made a difference in education finance?

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Blog
Blogs and publications

How poor households invest in their children’s future

Education is the top priority for Kenyans according to FinAccess Household Survey 2019. Poor households particularly attach high value to educating their children.

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Agriculture
Blogs and publications

Building livelihoods using inclusive finance for chicken farming

FSD Kenya set out to explore ways of using finance to build livelihoods of poor households in Kitui. The survey identified indigenous poultry and pulses as the agriculture value chains with the greatest opportunity for low-income households.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Moving from financial access to inclusive finance

FinAccess 2019 was launched last week by the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.  The results from this national household survey provide a comprehensive and authoritative picture of the retail financial services sector in Kenya.

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Consumer insights
Blogs and publications

The 2019 FinAccess household survey

The 2019 FinAccess household survey is the fifth in a series of surveys that measure drivers and usage of financial services in Kenya. The 2019 report was officially launched on April 3rd 2019.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

When pricing is live, competition will thrive

If we want truly dynamic and competitive pricing, we just need to empower consumers’ data to be the oil that lubricates a new type of marketplace.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

What is good regulation and why does it matter for finance?

When clear rules that govern the financial sector are enforced well, it ensures that both providers and consumers emerge from the market place as winners

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Towards a financial system which works for Kenya

Financial inclusion has attracted enormous interest because of its promise to provide an instrument for economic and social empowerment. Initial thinking was that simply expanding the reach of the financial sector would produce financial tools to support greater economic and social inclusion. But the results thus far have been disappointing.

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Digital finance
Blogs and publications

‘Upliftment’, friends and finance: everyday exchange repertoires and mobile money transfer in Kenya

The 2016 FinAccess household survey has been cited in a recently published academic journal. Access and view the journal article via the link below.

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Publications
Blogs and publications

4th FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2018 – A glimpse into the future of fintech (brief)

In his delivery of the 4th FSD Kenya annual lecture on financial inclusion internationally recognised entrepreneur and business leader, Julian Kyula, discusses the world of fintech from an African continent perspective and the journey we must embark on to participate in how the digital world is changing.

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Digital finance
Blogs and publications

How is digital credit changing the lives of Kenyans?

With its launch in 2007, M-PESA changed the way Kenyans transact with each other. In doing so, impact studies found that it significantly improved the ability of social networks to help people manage shocks

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Building livelihoods: An identity perspective (Part 5)

Throughout this blog series I have examined FSD Kenya’s Building Livelihoods programme from an identity perspective. I have shown how the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) creates valued identities in the community and how there are different pathways to savings group identification and value.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Building livelihoods: An identity perspective (Part 3)

The role of community-based facilitators (CBFs) is to encourage participation in savings groups, ensure groups function effectively, and provide training on basic financial and business skills, as well as prepare participants for formal loans.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Building livelihoods: An identity perspective (Part 4)

Over the past two years I have travelled to Marsabit County in Northern Kenya four times to talk to the same 50 people about their lives and experiences as participants of FSD Kenya’s Building Livelihoods programme. The programme aims to help participants develop sustainable livelihoods through business.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Building livelihoods: An identity perspective (Part 2)

Where there is already a strong value associated with savings groups, people are likely to more rapidly join, participate more fully, and exemplify what it means to be a member of the group.

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