and to drive development in the sector. ladies and gentlemen : allow me now to briefly share with you kenya ’ s experience on innovations in the banking sector. in pursuit of the financial sector ’ s vision in the kenya ’ s bis central bankers ’ speeches development blueprint, vision 2030, cbk and the players have embraced a partnership approach. consequently, several initiatives have been undertaken over the last 4 years aimed at the three envisaged goals of stability, efficiency and financial inclusion. these initiatives include : rollout of mobile phone financial services – approval for banks to leverage on mobile phone technology to present convenience and lower costs for their customers without compromising quality of service. through mobile banking, customers are now able to perform their transactions “ anytime anywhere ”. mobile money transfer has evolved from the initial concept of transferring money from one individual to another to include other functions such as payment of utility bills, loans, salaries and for deposits mobilization. introduction of agent banking mechanism in may 2010 where banks are allowed to engage third parties to provide certain banking services. the aim is increased outreach of banks to the vast under - banked and unbanked kenyan populace by introducing “ banking beyond branches ”. it also enables banks to leverage on additional cost effective distribution channels to offer financial services. agency banking takes banking to the people unlike previously when people had to go to the banks. licensing of credit reference bureaus to collect, collate, analyse and disseminate credit information among credit providers. credit information sharing provides an opportunity for individuals and businesses to rely on their credit history ( information capital ) as an alternative form of collateral to the traditional physical collateral, to secure credit facilities from banks. individuals will also be able to use their positive credit history to negotiate for better terms and conditions from their banks. on the other hand, banks will benefit from the mechanism since it will address the problem of information asymmetry and by extension the problem of non - performing loans which has in the past threatened the stability of the banking sector. the traditional challenges of the moral hazard and adverse selections can hinder financial sector growth. licensing of deposit taking microfinance institutions ( dtms ), whose focus is the lower end of the market, which is concentrated in the rural and periurban areas. the microfinance act, 2006, which empowers cbk to licence and supervise dtms, was operationalised in 2008. formalizing the operations of dtms is expected to bring more people, especially those previously un

our economies and through what channels? in kenya, for instance, estimates of remittances captured only from formal channels that include commercial banks and other authorized international remittances service providers, have averaged usd118. 2 million per month so far in 2014, from usd107. 5 million per month in 2013. this places remittances as an important source of foreign exchange. indeed they have grown exponentially in recent years to surpass some of the major traditional sources. in sub - saharan africa, remittances have become one of the important enablers of economic growth and of poverty reduction. as such, remittances contributed up to 3 % of gdp over the last five years and to more than 20 % of international flows. for example, in nigeria, remittances account for more than a quarter of gdp, while in lesotho they account for more than 20 percent of gdp. there are indications that international remittances to africa exceed bis central bankers ’ speeches usd30 billion annually, affect 25 million recipient households, and have the potential to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty. international remittance flows often exceed foreign direct investment in africa and account for more than twice as much as the world ’ s total official development aid. in this regard, there is no doubt that the capture of timely, reliable, accurate and comprehensive statistics is pivotal to the region ’ s macroeconomic policy management and deliberate policy must be designed to attract more inflows from our compatriots abroad. it is therefore important to increase transparency and make it easier and more cost effective for remitters to use legitimate channels, particularly in our region. while a majority of developed economies are largely compliant with the acceptable best practices, many developing countries, including mefmi member countries still have work to do, mainly due to inadequate technical capacity among some data compilers. without an adequate pool of skilled personnel, our efforts to bridge the capacity gaps in data compilation in the region will be futile. the importance of regular capacity building activities, interactions and sharing of experiences amongst ourselves, and benchmarking to international best practice therefore, cannot be overemphasized. i am happy to note that this course will make an important contribution to improving our understanding on how to collect, compile and analyse international remittances statistics in line with the 6th edition of imf ’ s balance of payments manual ( bpm 6 ) and the imf international remittance