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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

FSD Kenya’s 2018 experiment with Apollo Agriculture illustrates how to start from a real economy problem and then innovate a suitable financial solution that helps unlock real value.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

This Financial Access (dubbed FinAccess) Household Survey 2019 is the fifth in a series of surveys that measure and track developments and dynamics in the financial inclusion landscape in Kenya from the demand–side.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

In the past five years, digital loans have transformed the market for credit in Kenya. For millions of adults, the possibility of borrowing from their phones has opened the door to private, formal consumer credit for the first time.

A presentation and panel discussion by FSD Kenya on tech-enabled lending in Africa.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FSD Kenya’s Building Livelihoods programme is a market-based adaptation of the Graduation approach popularised by BRAC in Bangladesh. Over a period of two years, participants shared stories about their lives and early experiences with the programme giving insight into who they are and how they think and change throughout the programme.

Joseph and Alice are not real people, but the impact of behavioral research on consumer protection is anything but hypothetical. Across the world, consumer protection authorities have been using behavioral research to inform everything from post-financial crisis rules for mortgage brokers to regulations on new mobile and app-based financial services.

There is a range of new data sharing models emerging that could have a significant impact on financial innovation in emerging markets.

The combination of a regulatory sandbox and a one-stop-shop regulatory helpline is what the Kenyan fintech market needs to continue innovating.