to africa that contributes the least to pollution globally but bears the brunt of the adverse effects of climate change. as we build our digital ecosystems, we must keep in view effective digital governance frameworks. as data trails grow, we must protect our citizens from abuse of their data and ensure they are well informed on the use of their data. we must also beware of new trends. for instance, banks increasingly rely on artificial intelligence ( ai ) to make decisions on access to credit particularly for smes. rigorous evaluation of data models and their governance will be required to ensure that we do not introduce biases that inadvertently exclude the very citizens we are trying to on - board to digital ecosystems. in closing, let me once again thank you all for your participation. cbk looks forward to continued engagement, partnership and collaboration as we build back better from covid - 19. ladies and gentlemen, it is now my distinct honour and pleasure to invite his excellency uhuru kenyatta, president of the republic of kenya and commander - in - chief of the kenya defence forces, to deliver his keynote address. karibu, your excellency!

central bank of kenya afro - asia fintech festival nairobi online city in partnership with the 2020 singapore fintech festival closing remarks by dr. patrick njoroge governor, central bank of kenya december 9, 2020 as prepared for delivery your excellency uhuru kenyatta, president of the republic of kenya and commanderin - chief of the kenya defence forces ; moderators, speakers, panelists and partners ; distinguished guests ; ladies and gentlemen : good morning, good afternoon, good evening! i am delighted to join you after three inspiring days of coming together to deliberate on the theme of “ people and talent : harnessing collaboration in pursuit of resilience and growth post covid - 19. ’ ’ i am privileged today to welcome his excellency president uhuru kenyatta to the afro - asia fintech festival nairobi online city at the 2020 singapore fintech festival. his excellency ’ s presence is testament to the high - level ownership of kenya ’ s digital transformation strategy to spur shared prosperity for kenyans. let me also take this opportunity to thank our hosts, moderators, speakers and panellists who accepted our invitation to join us over the last three days. i am grateful to our partners, service providers and the monetary authority of singapore ( mas ) for walking with us on this journey. i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the teams at the central bank of kenya ( cbk ) who have worked tirelessly over the last few months to make this event a reality. finally, we appreciate the hundreds of participants who joined the nairobi online city event, to be part of the conversation. the last three days have been truly inspiring as we have shared successes and challenges in building back better through the coronavirus ( covid - 19 ) pandemic. as i indicated in my opening remarks on monday, 2020 has been an unprecedented year dominated by the covid - 19 pandemic. while the lives and livelihoods of citizens have been adversely affected, digitalization has ‘ kept the lights on ’ in the global economy. as we begin to turn the corner, we will look to digitalization as we ‘ build back better. ’ i did set the stage on monday by highlighting three broad themes as we pursue global resilience and growth post covid - 19. i was pleased to note robust discussions over the last three days around the themes of restoring small and medium - size enterprises ( smes ), partnerships and collaborations, and sustainable finance. first, it