News & events

The FSD Network is a growing family of Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) permanent institutions and programmes working across Africa to mould sustainable financial systems to work better for poor, vulnerable and marginalised populations on the continent.

On Thursday 3rd September 2020, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD Kenya) hosted a “FinAccess Datafest” webinar, live-streamed to a global audience on YouTube.

FSD Kenya and BFA Global held a webinar on the economic and social impact of COVID-19 on low-income households in Kenya on the afternoon of Thursday, June 11th, 2020.

The annual lecture is FSD Kenya’s flagship event. Held every year since 2015, the annual lecture highlights new thinking and raise cutting edge issues in the field of financial inclusion.

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, FSD Kenya and BFA Global have been working to understand the human impacts—social, financial, and economic—by conducting qualitative phone interviews with previous respondents from the Kenya Financial Diaries.

 FSD Kenya today welcomes a £17.14m commitment from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), part of a £320m package that will initiate an ambitious new phase of financial sector development across the continent.

On 19th November 2019, the 5th FSD Kenya Annual Lecture took place at the University of Nairobi’s Chandaria Auditorium. Dr David Ferrand, a long-time observer of the Kenyan financial sector and former FSD Kenya director was the speaker at this year’s event.

On the evening of Tuesday November 19th 2019, FSD Kenya held its fifth annual lecture on financial inclusion at the University of Nairobi’s Chandaria Auditorium.

This year’s lecture titled “Financing Kenya: 2020 hindsight for Vision 2030” was delivered by Dr. David Ferrand. David is a long-time observer of the Kenyan financial sector.

On the evening of Tuesday November 19th 2019, FSD Kenya held its fifth annual lecture on financial inclusion at the University of Nairobi’s Chandaria Auditorium.

The Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) is an unconditional cash transfer programme implemented by the Government of Kenya’s National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) under its twelve-year support to the social protection sector in Kenya.

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.

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

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.

It is with an immense sense of loss that the FSD Kenya learned of the passing of Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom.

FSD Kenya is pleased to support the Afro-Asia Fintech Festival (www.afroasiafintech.net) co-hosted by the Central Bank of Kenya and the Monetary Authority of Singapore on the 15-16 July at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies.

David Ferrand has announced that he will be stepping down from his role as Director of FSD Kenya from 4th July 2019. After an extensive, international search process, the Trustees have appointed Tamara Cook (pictured) as his successor.

The Central Bank of Kenya in collaboration with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) have launched the Financial Access (FinAccess) Household Survey 2019.

Financial Sector Deepening-Kenya is proud to be a supporting partner of Dignity and Debt‘s project that involves the use of AI to marshal citizen voices about their experiences with digital credit.

David Ferrand has announced that he will be stepping down from his role as Director of FSD Kenya in mid-2019, having led the programme from its inception in early 2005.

FSD Kenya is pleased to announce that its 4th annual lecture on financial inclusion will be delivered by Julian Kyula on the 8th of November 2018.

DFS Lab Announces Startup Boot camp in Tanzania, Calls on Applicants to Apply

Mystery shopper exercises carried out over several weeks in 2015 and 2016 mirrored a typical customer’s journey in which most customers obtain information on banking from branches. But despite visiting over 30 bank branches, customer care representatives, bank websites, enquiring from colleagues and friends, we still couldn’t get consistent pricing information.

Do you know how much it costs to run your bank account? It’s no surprise that many of us do not know the cost of banking in Kenya. Pricing information is not easy to find and sometimes even staff at bank branches do not provide accurate information.

FSD Kenya is an independent Trust set up in 2005 to deepen and support inclusive financial markets in Kenya. Our current Strategy
for 2016-2021 aims to generate sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of lower-income people.

This quarter’s e-newsletter is out!

FSD Kenya is pleased to announce that effective 23rd March 2017, we have moved to a new and improved facility that will better serve our partners.