njuguna ndung ’ u : launch of the reconstituted market leaders forum talking notes by prof njuguna ndung ’ u, governor of the central bank of kenya, at the launch of the reconstituted market leaders forum, nairobi, 6 july 2011. * * * distinguished chief executives ; directors ; members ; ladies and gentlemen : 1. thank you all for finding time to attend this inaugural meeting of the reconstituted market leaders forum. 2. as background information to our meeting today, i wish to mention that the market leaders forum, popularly known as mlf, was formed in 2001 to promote and support the development of the government bonds program. the membership of the forum was drawn from stakeholders in the government securities market that included commercial banks, fund managers, stockbrokers, investment banks and capital markets authority. 3. the forum meets monthly and is chaired by the governor, central bank of kenya. the meetings of the forum are purely consultative. the bank takes into account the recommendations of the mlf in making decisions on bonds issuance, pricing and tenors and on other issues relating to the financial markets, and more specifically government securities market. but it is also a good meeting to discuss macroeconomic situation policy issues. achievements 4. since its inception, the forum has contributed significantly to the deepening and development of the financial markets in kenya. through the cooperation and support of the forum the financial market has realized great milestones including : i. lengthening of debt maturity profile : the initial objective of the mlf was to lengthen the maturity profile of securities in the domestic debt portfolio in order to minimize refinancing risks associated with short term debt and to also deepen the local financial markets. this has successfully been achieved with the ratio of treasury bills to bonds in the portfolio currently at 23 : 77 from 70 : 30 in 2001 and average maturity of all securities standing at 5 years 11 months up from 8 months in 2001. the average maturity for bonds alone is 8 years so far. in 2008, cbk issued the first long - dated paper of 20 - years maturity. this was followed by successful issuance of a 25 - year bond in 2010 and a debut 30 - year savings development bond in 2011. ii. secondary market infrastructure development : in 2008, the cbk in partnership with the nairobi stock exchange adopted the automated trading system ( ats ) for treasury bonds. the adoption of ats has improved efficiency and confidence in the secondary bond market with

patrick njoroge : developing robust and sustainable strategies for microfinance in kenya opening remarks by dr patrick njoroge, governor of the central bank of kenya, at the microfinance training course for policy and development 2016, organised by the alliance forum foundation, held at the kenya school of monetary studies, nairobi, 24 february 2016. * * * distinguished guests ; ladies and gentlemen : on behalf of the central bank of kenya, let me join my colleagues in welcoming you to this workshop aimed at developing a strategy to enhance financial inclusion in the comesa region. the strategy will be underpinned by an enabling regulatory and supervisory framework for microfinance institutions. i understand that the strategy is based on the draft proceedings of microfinance training course for policy and development, which was held in december 2014 in lusaka. at the outset, let me commend the comesa monetary institute, the african development bank and the alliance forum foundation, for the work done so far. establishing a financially inclusive ecosystem that does not marginalize people on the basis of income or geographical location has become a policy concern for many countries in the world, including comesa member countries. financial inclusion has gained traction over the recent years as a priority area for policymakers and regulators within the financial services sector. the various initiatives that have been undertaken by different stakeholders, to enhance access and usage of formal financial services, have led to a significant reduction in the global population that is financially excluded. the global findex report ( 2014 ), spearheaded by the world bank, estimates that between 2011 and 2014, the number of adults without a bank account dropped by 20 percent, to 2 billion. the enhanced access is attributed largely to a significant growth in account penetration and innovations in technology, especially mobile money and agency banking. however, it is time now to shift the focus away from access and towards quality breadth of services. in kenya, the outcomes of the various initiatives, some of which will be highlighted in this workshop, have been remarkable. noteworthy progress includes, the increase in the banked population from 24 percent to 67 percent between 2006 and 2013 as highlighted by the finaccess surveys conducted by fsd kenya between 2006 and 2013. a geospatial survey that was conducted in 2013 also estimates that 76. 7 percent of the kenyan population is within a 5km radius of a financial access point. however, despite the noticeable progress in recent years, 25 percent of the kenyan population still remains unbanked. the existence